MRI and CT

This post will be a continuation of “No Answers, More Tests”, so be sure to head back there and check it out first.

The next exams in line are the CT scan and MRI. If you’ve never had a CT or MRI they are easy ones to prep for and they are both a type of imagining. The CT, which I’ve said in the past is one of my least favourites and have explained in past, so I won’t bore you with the details. A quick explanation is no eat or drink about 4 hours prior, then when you arrive 2 glasses of contrast drink, cranberry is best. Your hooked up to an IV, lay on the table and slide under the CT machine which then uses radiation to imagine the part of your doctor wants to see, my abdomen and head as a dye is injected in you that gives your a body a warm rush starting from head and ends for me feeling like I wet myself, but never have…yet. 

My next scan scheduled was the MRI, there’s not a whole lot of prep for this scan either, unless your your claustrophobic in which case you can choose to be sedated. I’m basically put on a table then it slides into the machine that is a narrow tube, my nose was inches the the top of it, so yes it’s very tight and the scan lasted I believe 20 minutes. After about 10 I did start getting that closed in feeling, but was able to tilt my head back and see just enough of the ceiling outside the machine to help me more comfortable. It’s also loud.

A week went by and I was sitting in my surgeons office again, it was there that was when my surgeon really first hinted that surgery would probably happen. I was concerned of coarse because of being told the mass was sitting directly on a the major blood supply to my lower body and the fact 10 years ago they chose not to remove it for that reason. She that they would run one more test to try to determine exactly what I had. She told me that my case had been discussed by a number of surgeons at the “tumor board”, which is a group of surgeons that meet and discuss what is the best option for me and other patients. She assured me now that the tumor had grown, albeit very slowly, and my lab tests had shown rising markers in my blood and urine that now surgery would be beneficial and if it was cancerous it was time to get it out. By this time it was close to Christmas time and my next scan would be scheduled as early in the new year as possible. The scan I’m referring to is called an Octreotide scan, my next post will be on that as this procedure needs a post of it’s own and I’ll need time to explain it properly. Now I promise most of the boring medical scan, test explanations will be done soon and business will pick up. Thanks for reading through this.

Now at this time after this appointment and during Christmas time in 2019, I was pretty worried and concerned about what I was hearing. I had never had surgery before and to have cancer being mentioned more often stressed me out and well, made me feel lost, hard to focus on anything on hand, I was busy at work and that helped, I think, but during the holidays it never left my mind. Nobody probably noticed as I was very good at hiding my emotions, but while I was alone I broke down more then I had ever! I seldom ever got sick let alone have any kind of health issues. Besides a softball to my face that cracked my orbital bone, I never broke an arm, leg or anything and the anticipation of major surgery was scary. I tried to stay positive during those holidays and spent a lot of the time enjoying too many drinks, visiting friends and family….everyone remembers that, right? In the back of mind though I already knew something was wrong, my spidey sense was tingling….