CT scan day

August 14, 2007

Just returned from La Crosse after getting CT scan done on my chest. Much easier than the MRI. They shot some iodine-based contrast agent into me then slid me in to the donut, had me hold my breath for 10 seconds and that was it.

The MRI last week was something quite different. If you've ever had one, you know what I'm talking about. Mine was for my head so my head was basically fastened down and stuck in a very confined tube. Then the assault began. LOUD, harsh sonic assault. I tried to pretend it was music - and at one point it did bear some resemblance to early Pink Floyd - but there's no denying it was unsettling and scary. They did the actual picture taking in segments lasting from 45 seconds to 4 minutes each. I was in there for half an hour and probably 20-25 minutes of that was sonic battery. I expect there will be more of this in my future and that's.... OK.

Tomorrow is the big day - finally. I'll be talking with my de facto neurologist, who just happens to be the head of the Neurology dept at this particular hospital. The big question to be answered for me is what the hell did they see on the chest xray and did the CT scan clear that mystery up. Keeping fingers crossed that it's nothing and if it is something, it's nothing to do with what's going on in the brain. The other big question, of course, is "What's next?" Are we going to need to do a biopsy or even cut the thing out? Will we wait a couple months, do another MRI and see where we're at? Start some sort of chemo or radiation? Whatever we find out tomorrow, I'm determined to get a second opinion. A trip to the Mayo Clinic could very well be in my future.

Today I named myself manager of my health care team. At first I was thinking I am a member of my health care team, but I soon realized I'm not just a team member, I'm the manager. I will be depending heavily on the expertise and advice of various professionals. I will be depending on various people who are close to me for support and advice. But the bottom line is I'm the decider. I need to have as much information as possible so that if/when the time comes to make difficult decisions, I'll be as prepared as possible.

To that end, I stopped on the way home and purchased an electronic dictation device for recording office visits, which I will then transcribe. I purchased a groovy binder, legal pads, and highlighters. After tomorrow's consultation with the neurologist, I'll be picking up from the records department copies of all lab and imaging reports, copies of doctors' notes from my visits, and digital copies of all imaging (chest xray, chest CT scan, and head MRI) that's been done on me. I'll be getting copies of all that and passing it all along to my primary care physician. I want to keep copies of everything in a binder and take it with me whenever consulting with my team members.

If this shit is going to take me down, it's going to have to work at it.