Thursday, September 15, 2011

Countdown Clocks and my MRI

I have countdown clocks.  Such as the one on my blog saying 18 days until surgery!  (18 days!!) I have 2 more on my phone - 101 days until Christmas!  AND  115 Days until 30!  It's quite strange watching the days tick away.  I clearly remember having 300 days until my 30th birthday, and watching each one and wondering if I'd feel some sense of urgency when it was down to just 100..  I'm close.  But really it will be just one more day down.  Maybe I should then change it to days until I'm 31.

So we've made a couple steps towards finalizing things for the procedure.  I found out at work who would be covering for me.  It is FAR from ideal.  And I could probably write for an hour on how upset I am about it and why, but like I've been saying - it is what it is.  We just need to make the best of it.  Atleast we found out now and can start training and making arrangements instead of doing it all last minute like I was beginning to fear (though based on who it is, we really could have known a month ago, and had things a little more in order....BUT OH WELL).

I also had my MRI yesterday.  Okay.. MRIs are weird.  The guy who checked me in and really walked me through the procedure was the same guy who did it all at my MRI last year.  He is extremely friendly and chatty and easy to talk to which probably helps his case when he's kind of an older guy who has to get your boobs situated properly in the machine without freaking you out. 

I wore scrubs for this adventure.  But the funny thing is they make you keep your shoes on atleast until you mount the machine.  So since I was coming from work and going back to work afterwards, I was wearing my oversized hospital issued blue scrubs and my black peep toe high heels.

He set me up with an IV, placed a giant scrub cap/hair net thing on my head, and squished some ear plugs in my ears.  Then I got all situated on this table where I had to lay face down with my arms above my head and my boobs dangling freely...  (awkward...)  He put a big warm blanket over me which made me feel a little better.  Then he messed with my IV a bunch which wasn't very pleasant, slid my table back into the machine and then he left, and I had to lay perfectly still while this machine around me buzzed, and beeped and knocked.  They have it fixed with a mirror so that even though I was laying face down I could see straight out in front of me (where the top of my head was pointed).  I think that helps with the claustrophobia.  The time is really only broken up by the imaging person speaking every once in awhile "you'll hear knocking for five minutes now, be very still",  then five minutes later "There will be silence for 2 minutes now, please remain still".  This went on for atleast 20-30 minutes before the guy came back in and injected my IV with the contrast dye and told me only 5 minutes, then 6 minutes left!  Not sure why he didn't say 11 minutes...

My skin is very impressionable, so after laying face down with a folded towel between my face and the head rest, I had major towel imprints and lines all over my face!  They were mostly gone by time I got to work, but I'm sure I looked pretty funny at the hospital.

Then it was maybe 3 hours later and my surgeons office called.  I had a moment of fear/panic of course where I thought "oh my gosh it must be bad for them to rush the results like that!"  but no.. she said they got the results and "everything looks stable, there are no new lesions" and they would discuss it in more detail at my preop!  So thats good news, and just further reinforcement of how awesome my hospital and doctors are.  

Next week is preop with the Plastic Surgeon, I expect it to be informative.  I'm bringing my husband, we can really get to the details of the reconstruction, what I can expect there now that I have the clearance I need from all the other doctors! 

No comments:

Post a Comment