That's what Michael said upon finding out that my MRI of my brain shows that it is NORMAL! That's right. No clots in there. No aneurisms. No tumor. No MS, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's diseases. Normal brain. Who'da thunk?
Friday, June 30, 2006
Vampires at work
9:30 am and I just finished breakfast. Another day of fasting, and this time it was so that I could get more blood work done.
Dr. Chang had ordered a bunch more blood tests and I had to get this done, not by sweet and super-compentent Tracy, but by the hospital's phlebotomists. When I checked in, I told the woman, "I want your best blood drawer." She said, not to worry, we have "Arterial Jill" in today! So I was happy.
Well, so Jill comes out to get me and I smiled and said, "You must be Arterial Jill."
She looked at me like something that had just dropped off the ceiling into her soup. "Phlebotomist Jill," she replied with no change of expression.
Well.. ok, I'm not going to argue about her nicknames. She had a look at my right arm... then my left... then back to my right. I was thinking thoughts about big veins.
I'd done my part. I awoke early with Michael and we worked out at the gym. I even did an extra couple of sets of arm workouts. We left there warm. I took a hot shower and then put on a sweatshirt. I even had a hot flash on the way to the hospital. "This is going to be good!" I thought.
But it was cold in the hospital and the blue everywhere ... Well, Jill actually did get blood on the 2nd stick. I had to keep asking how we were doing, because I will not look. "Three tubes done...Ten total" ..."Five tubes done..." ..."Your flow is slowing down. I'm going to have to readjust this."
That's French for, "Stand by for pain." A little stirring around with the needle, and we were back in business for one more tube.
And she stirred around again and we got another tube. I told her that I was trying hard to be good so that I'd get a sticker. I saw them tantalizingly hanging on the wall. She said not to worry, that I'd be getting a sticker for sure.
Finally she got into the vein again and got the 8th tube. But then the flow stopped. She pulled the needle out then and told me to hold the gauze on it. "Are we done?" I asked expectantly.
But I knew that they still had 2 more tubes to go. I asked why they couldn't just do with the blood that they had. I explained that those forensic folks on TV can get a person's whole biological history from blood spatter evidence that's years old!
She explained -- and by now there was a second vampire along to help move me out of there -- that they have to put the blood in certain tubes which have certain additives already in them. Different tests mean different additives. Well... so there we are.
The male vampire -- I didn't get his name (rude of me, I know) -- then whispered something to vampire Jill, who left unceremoniously.
He asked me if I'd ever had blood taken from my hand. Urgh. He got a skinny needle and put a warmer thing on my hand. Then he stuck and drew and had me move this way and that trying to get the flow to go. And he did finally get enough to fill those two remaining tubes.
I didn't get home to eat till 9:30, and now I have a full day of work to do in half a day. ;) I know. Take it easy, and I will. I am thinking about telling my students about all of this.
Dr. Chang had ordered a bunch more blood tests and I had to get this done, not by sweet and super-compentent Tracy, but by the hospital's phlebotomists. When I checked in, I told the woman, "I want your best blood drawer." She said, not to worry, we have "Arterial Jill" in today! So I was happy.
Well, so Jill comes out to get me and I smiled and said, "You must be Arterial Jill."
She looked at me like something that had just dropped off the ceiling into her soup. "Phlebotomist Jill," she replied with no change of expression.
Well.. ok, I'm not going to argue about her nicknames. She had a look at my right arm... then my left... then back to my right.
I'd done my part. I awoke early with Michael and we worked out at the gym. I even did an extra couple of sets of arm workouts. We left there warm. I took a hot shower and then put on a sweatshirt. I even had a hot flash on the way to the hospital. "This is going to be good!" I thought.
But it was cold in the hospital and the blue everywhere ... Well, Jill actually did get blood on the 2nd stick. I had to keep asking how we were doing, because I will not look. "Three tubes done...Ten total" ..."Five tubes done..." ..."Your flow is slowing down. I'm going to have to readjust this."
That's French for, "Stand by for pain." A little stirring around with the needle, and we were back in business for one more tube.
And she stirred around again and we got another tube. I told her that I was trying hard to be good so that I'd get a sticker. I saw them tantalizingly hanging on the wall. She said not to worry, that I'd be getting a sticker for sure.
Finally she got into the vein again and got the 8th tube. But then the flow stopped. She pulled the needle out then and told me to hold the gauze on it. "Are we done?" I asked expectantly.
But I knew that they still had 2 more tubes to go. I asked why they couldn't just do with the blood that they had. I explained that those forensic folks on TV can get a person's whole biological history from blood spatter evidence that's years old!
She explained -- and by now there was a second vampire along to help move me out of there -- that they have to put the blood in certain tubes which have certain additives already in them. Different tests mean different additives. Well... so there we are.
The male vampire -- I didn't get his name (rude of me, I know) -- then whispered something to vampire Jill, who left unceremoniously.
He asked me if I'd ever had blood taken from my hand. Urgh. He got a skinny needle and put a warmer thing on my hand. Then he stuck and drew and had me move this way and that trying to get the flow to go. And he did finally get enough to fill those two remaining tubes.
I didn't get home to eat till 9:30, and now I have a full day of work to do in half a day. ;) I know. Take it easy, and I will. I am thinking about telling my students about all of this.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
A Stunt for Fear Factor
Forget eating bugs. Forget jumping off of helicopters into freezing water. Fear Factor should have its participants get an MRI of their heads!
Keith, the technician, was nice and very competent. He explained everything and how it was going to go. He gave me earplugs and showed me how to put them in. I got onto a gurney sort of thing and he put a cage over my head and pillows all around it. He gave me a panic button and aimed my mirror so I could see out. And then he rolled my gurney into the big donut machine.
Thirty seconds for the first part. I held very still and counted down from 30 as the thing made funny clicking and whirring and banging sounds.
The next part was for longer. This time the machine shouted "Enough! Enough! Enough!" for the whole time, as I counted down, tried to control my shivering, and struggled to relax.
Another part sounded like the thing was yelling, "Help! Help! Help!" I kept my eyes closed and counted.
During another part, the top part of the machine said "BOMB! BOMB!" and the lower part said "bing! bing!" back and forth and back and forth. I think that part was for 3 minutes. I was working very hard to keep from trembling and I was actually trying to keep my teeth clenched so that I wouldn't grind them and move my head.
There were a couple of sections where the table actually shook with the sound and fury of these goings-on. For these, the machine stopped making intelligible sounds and just sounded like a jackhammer. It was at this point that I was wishing for a boom car. (not really! LOL!)
Finally Keith returned to me and rolled me out. I thought that I was going to be done. Then I could see that he had a syringe and a tourniquet and I lost my composure, which I'd been working so hard to maintain.
He said that he'd been ordered to do this with contrast and that meant injecting something into my vein and I sobbed. That worked! He said that he wouldn't do that. He told me that they could do some extra banging and that would maybe make up for not having to do the contrast, so I agreed to that.
Thirty more seconds... another minute and a half.. and another 2 minutes, maybe. Then he wheeled me out and I was free.
Keith showed me pictures of my own brain! He showed me my eyes and my ears and flipped through and showed me things. Nothing looked abnormal to me, but then... nothing looked normal either! LOL!
They just called and I have to go to the hospital in the morning for more blood work. I think that I am losing enthusiasm for this hobby.
Keith, the technician, was nice and very competent. He explained everything and how it was going to go. He gave me earplugs and showed me how to put them in. I got onto a gurney sort of thing and he put a cage over my head and pillows all around it. He gave me a panic button and aimed my mirror so I could see out. And then he rolled my gurney into the big donut machine.
Thirty seconds for the first part. I held very still and counted down from 30 as the thing made funny clicking and whirring and banging sounds.
The next part was for longer. This time the machine shouted "Enough! Enough! Enough!" for the whole time, as I counted down, tried to control my shivering, and struggled to relax.
Another part sounded like the thing was yelling, "Help! Help! Help!" I kept my eyes closed and counted.
During another part, the top part of the machine said "BOMB! BOMB!" and the lower part said "bing! bing!" back and forth and back and forth. I think that part was for 3 minutes. I was working very hard to keep from trembling and I was actually trying to keep my teeth clenched so that I wouldn't grind them and move my head.
There were a couple of sections where the table actually shook with the sound and fury of these goings-on. For these, the machine stopped making intelligible sounds and just sounded like a jackhammer. It was at this point that I was wishing for a boom car. (not really! LOL!)
Finally Keith returned to me and rolled me out. I thought that I was going to be done. Then I could see that he had a syringe and a tourniquet and I lost my composure, which I'd been working so hard to maintain.
He said that he'd been ordered to do this with contrast and that meant injecting something into my vein and I sobbed. That worked! He said that he wouldn't do that. He told me that they could do some extra banging and that would maybe make up for not having to do the contrast, so I agreed to that.
Thirty more seconds... another minute and a half.. and another 2 minutes, maybe. Then he wheeled me out and I was free.
Keith showed me pictures of my own brain! He showed me my eyes and my ears and flipped through and showed me things. Nothing looked abnormal to me, but then... nothing looked normal either! LOL!
They just called and I have to go to the hospital in the morning for more blood work.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
The plot thickens...
Well, not really, but didn't that sound exciting!? Yesterday afternoon Michael accompanied me to visit Dr. Chang. He poked and prodded, asked me many questions, listened to my answers, listened to all the assorted sounds within my body, asked more questions, and gave quizzical looks. The blood stuff that they have back is normal (whew, I like having normal blood!) but there are some tests they had to send out.
My pulse, sitting there in the doctor's office, was 48. That is very slow, even for me. But my EKG I had ydy didn't show anything abnormal. Athlete's heart?
He said that my little losses of balance that I get from time to time are not normal. He was curious about my "ceiling fan vision" that I get when I'm exercising and warm. (It is like looking through a fast-moving ceiling fan, it's in both eyes, and even when my eyes are closed.)
For now, Dr. Chang has me on Zocor, a statin drug. This is supposed to keep any other clots I may have glued down so they won't go anywhere and do damage! I'm for this. I'm to stay on the baby aspirin and off the hormone patch. I mean.. I was mostly off it anyway -- I'd been weaning myself for sometime -- but I never had gotten over the hot flashes. Oh well... I'm about to the age where "normal" women do menopause, so I may as well know what my peers are going through.
He told me to eat more protein. I think he was worried about my cereal diet. ;) I can get a bit more protein by sprinkling nuts on my cereal, he said. :)
He has a plan for more testing including a head MRI, a carotid ultrasound, and a stress echocardiogram. They're supposed to call from his office today when they have something scheduled for me.
I am taking this little clot discovery as a warning shot. And I feel blessed that I got it the way I did. If it had been over just a bit, in a blood vessel that serves my optic nerve, I'd have lost all my sight in that eye! And a little further over yet and my right side would have been paralyzed or unable to talk or something. I am very lucky.
My pulse, sitting there in the doctor's office, was 48. That is very slow, even for me. But my EKG I had ydy didn't show anything abnormal. Athlete's heart?
He said that my little losses of balance that I get from time to time are not normal. He was curious about my "ceiling fan vision" that I get when I'm exercising and warm. (It is like looking through a fast-moving ceiling fan, it's in both eyes, and even when my eyes are closed.)
For now, Dr. Chang has me on Zocor, a statin drug. This is supposed to keep any other clots I may have glued down so they won't go anywhere and do damage! I'm for this. I'm to stay on the baby aspirin and off the hormone patch.
He told me to eat more protein. I think he was worried about my cereal diet. ;) I can get a bit more protein by sprinkling nuts on my cereal, he said. :)
He has a plan for more testing including a head MRI, a carotid ultrasound, and a stress echocardiogram. They're supposed to call from his office today when they have something scheduled for me.
I am taking this little clot discovery as a warning shot. And I feel blessed that I got it the way I did. If it had been over just a bit, in a blood vessel that serves my optic nerve, I'd have lost all my sight in that eye! And a little further over yet and my right side would have been paralyzed or unable to talk or something. I am very lucky.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
First try!
Anyone who knows me well knows that I hate more than anything to have my blood drawn. My veins have always "run and hid" when they see that needle coming close. I told Michael on my way to get it done this morning that I think I'd rather have 5 crown preps (with all the numbing shots) than to have my blood drawn once.
Well.. this blood drawing woman at IMA, Tracy, got my vein on the first try! Michael thinks that it's because of my exercising and the hot shower that I took this am. I think that it's also because I wore a sweatshirt to keep my arm warm. :) Anyway... that part is done! YAY!
This afternoon at 3, I go for my "workup" with Dr. Colin Chang. He went to school with our son David and was a whiz kid then. I suspect he still is a whiz kid.
I got my Lesson 5 sent out just now for my Photoshop classes and I need to get in and have a look at what my students have done for Lesson 4 between yesterday and now.
Well.. this blood drawing woman at IMA, Tracy, got my vein on the first try! Michael thinks that it's because of my exercising and the hot shower that I took this am. I think that it's also because I wore a sweatshirt to keep my arm warm. :) Anyway... that part is done! YAY!
This afternoon at 3, I go for my "workup" with Dr. Colin Chang. He went to school with our son David and was a whiz kid then. I suspect he still is a whiz kid.
I got my Lesson 5 sent out just now for my Photoshop classes and I need to get in and have a look at what my students have done for Lesson 4 between yesterday and now.
Monday, June 26, 2006
I went to the opthamologist's office today and the doc discovered that I don't indeed have a detached retina. But what I did have is an retinal ischemia.
What this means is that I had a little blood clot in an artery which feeds my retina. It is an event like a stroke... except in my retina instead of my brain. The good news is that the blind spot may well get better.
But the bad news is that now I have to go in for tests and find out what caused me to have this little "eye stroke." Early tomorrow morning, I'll go to get blood drawn. Then in the afternoon, I'll have an echocardiogram and some other things.
For now I'm off the hormone replacement patch and I'm back on the baby aspirin.
What this means is that I had a little blood clot in an artery which feeds my retina. It is an event like a stroke... except in my retina instead of my brain. The good news is that the blind spot may well get better.
But the bad news is that now I have to go in for tests and find out what caused me to have this little "eye stroke." Early tomorrow morning, I'll go to get blood drawn. Then in the afternoon, I'll have an echocardiogram and some other things.
For now I'm off the hormone replacement patch and I'm back on the baby aspirin.
News from the weekend
Eye update: It's still the same, I think. I mean.. it's kind of hard to tell from in here. I still have that blank place where I can't see, but it's hard to tell if it's bigger or smaller than it was. I think that I'm noticing every floater now, where I might not have before. I have an appointment today with the opthamologist's office to evaluate me further and they'll make a plan.
Brayden's birthday party was fun! I have posted the pics from the party here. Nothing's edited. I just deleted the totally horrible ones and posted what was left. As usual, I stupidly didn't take enough pics of the adults. Hey.. we're cute too! LOL! Annette, Lisa, if you want any specific ones edited, let me know!
Suzanne and I went to the Summer Garden Walk and had a good time, despite the rain. It started when we got out of our car at the first stop and ended when we got into our car after the last stop. But we still enjoyed pretty gardens, and the people were all nice. The cake at the Historical Society made up for the not-great cookies at the Hilltop Garden Center.
I hadn't mentioned yet that Michael, Bob, Ann, and I went to see Click on Friday night. That stars and was produced by Adam Sandler. We loved it! Made us laugh and cry both. The story makes you think and moves right along. And of course it's funny throughout.
Brayden's birthday party was fun! I have posted the pics from the party here. Nothing's edited. I just deleted the totally horrible ones and posted what was left. As usual, I stupidly didn't take enough pics of the adults. Hey.. we're cute too! LOL! Annette, Lisa, if you want any specific ones edited, let me know!
Suzanne and I went to the Summer Garden Walk and had a good time, despite the rain. It started when we got out of our car at the first stop and ended when we got into our car after the last stop. But we still enjoyed pretty gardens, and the people were all nice. The cake at the Historical Society made up for the not-great cookies at the Hilltop Garden Center.
I hadn't mentioned yet that Michael, Bob, Ann, and I went to see Click on Friday night. That stars and was produced by Adam Sandler. We loved it! Made us laugh and cry both. The story makes you think and moves right along. And of course it's funny throughout.
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