Mores tests etc.

After the prodding and poking of the CT Scan it was time for another scan, this time a Gamma Ray bone scan.  I was go to the hospital have an injection then go away for 2-3 hours and return for the scan itself.  I promptly turned up for the injection.  Oh boy another needle!  Again I explained to the nurse about my issue with needles. I sat there and said how can I talk to a room of 60 people or more with no problems but turn into a quivering wreck at the sight and thought of a needle.  She then turned it around saying that she could not talk to a room of 10 people but was happy to stick needles in people (well maybe not that blunt).

Left the hospital and then went off to do the day to day stuff of food shopping etc. before returning to the hospital for the scan. The scanner was similar to the CT scanner but this time they seemed to worried that I would make a run for it and tied me down on the bed before setting it in motion.  For nearly 20 minutes I had to remain still, for me this is a miracle in itself.  I lay there and tried to think of something relaxing, then started to panic that I could not think of anything at all, relaxing or otherwise.  Previously when laying on a beauticians  bed I had always thought about shopping lists, job lists for work and found it very hard to relax and switch off.  I think now I have gone the other way and too far off the scale for what I am used to.

The result of the bone scan - all clear.

What I have not explained yet is that my hospital visits are split over two hospital sites that are at least 15 miles apart from each other.  The initial breast clinic was at Warrington General, along with the bone scan.  The CT scan, pre op and operation has and is to be conducted at Halton (Runcorn).

In between the CT and bone scan I had a trip to London with my husband.  It was not to be a valentine trip when it was booked but sort of ended up as such with everything that has happened.  We had an overnight in a hotel round the corner from Trafalgar Square and on the Saturday night we went to see Cat On A Hot Tin Roof with Adrian Lester as Brick and James Earl Jones as Big Daddy.  We had dinner at a restaurant just off Covent Garden called Sarastro.  When we got back to the hotel we then read the Sunday paper before going to sleep.  We also went to the British Museum to see the Staffordshire Hoard amongst other things.  The weekend ended in having tea with Aaron my nephew.

Other tests etc.

After the diagnosis I was scheduled for other tests.  These were just in case...

I had a CT Scan.  It is not up there with some tests.  I had to drink this milky looking liquid, nearly a litre of it.  They then put a needle in my arm.  This will not be the first or last time I mention this but I don't do needles at the best of times.  The closest I get to a needle is when I am doing cross stitch.

Sitting in the chair I explained about my issue with needles to the nurse and she was very good.  I have to say that it was not the most pleasant of things. After this procedure I was back out in the waiting room for the next part.

I have remained prepared for anything and this waiting room was enhanced by the addition of a book that I have started reading.  Desperate Romantics by Fanny Moyle - recently dramatised by the BBC starring that very handsome Aidan Turner as the mad, bad and dangerous to know Dante Gabriel Rossitti, some time leader of the Pre-Raphaelite botherhood.

I had not even finished by lovely cocktail when they called me in for the scan.  I went in and took my place on the bed.  I then went for the first scan.  The nurse returned and attached me to the intravenous drip. Firstly she said if I felt any difference, which I didn't, she then said that that was the right answer.  All of a sudden she released the drip and I had the most unusual feeling as my body went warm and I had a metallic taste in my mouth followed by the thought that I had wet myself.  Thankfully they were all feelings and not actual happenings.  I then went for the second run through the scanner.

A week on from these events I can report that all was clear.  I must say that I am glad they were not looking for a brain or they would have been sadly disappointed.  They found what they thought was a heart but on final reflection was a swinging brick, well that is what mom says.