Another scan day.
At MD Anderson today for a follow up PET/CT scan. Hoping for the best, but keeping my options open just in case, as it helps make the news not as devastating if bad, but that much sweeter if good. I feel fine, so that’s what counts.
06:00: Up
07:00: Out the house.
07:15: At the airport.
07:30: Through security.
08:39: Flight delay.
09:40: Boarding begins.
09:50: Sitting in my seat.
10:05: Push back.
10:16: Take Off.
11:04: Touch Down.
11:17: Off the plane.
11:25: On the skyway.
11:30: Off the skyway.
11:33: Bathroom break, these are important along the way to be timed at the right time.
11:45: On the bus.
13:15: At MD Anderson, in the Duncan building to the second floor skywalk to the May’s clinic.
13:22: I check in for my blood work at the diagnostics center in the may’s clinic on the second floor.
13:50: I get called to the back.
14:10: All done with the 3 tubes of blood the vampire took.
14:30: I check in on the 6th floor at the PET imaging center.
15:00: I get called to the back.
15:05: I get weighed and height checked. 251 & 6’1.
15:30: It takes 4 sticks to to get the IV started. My veins are just flat he said. This the guy everyone calls to when they can’t get an IV started. He test my blood sugar, and 105 it is. They use an IV because of having to put in the the radioactive glucose into me, they will also use it to inject the iodine solution into me during the CT portion of the scan as well. He gives me the lovely opaque drink to me for me to drink as it helps with the contrast of the CT portion of the scan. Not the best tasting stuff, and they want you to drink 40oz of this stuff.
15:40: I get the radioactive glucose put into me, and they leave me in the dim room to rest and let the body absorb the glucose.
16:35: I get called and escorted to the waiting area right outside the scanning rooms. They tell me to empty my bladder and take a seat and wait.
16:40: I am escorted to the PET/CT GE Machine. The tech has me lay on my back, my head on the pillow, my hands over my head, my knees propped up with a knee cushion to keep back straight against the platform. He puts me through the machine, hooks up the iodine IV, does a small test flush, and then walks out the room and starts the scan. Within a minute, like he promised, I feel the flushing rush of the iodine solution rush through my body as the scanner is doing the CT portion of the scan. The scanner then lines me up to the part of the scanner that does the PET part of the scan, and then starts rolling me at less than a mm a second beginning from my head to my knees out the back of the scanner. Once my pelvis is cleared the scanner the tech comes in and removes my IV while the scan finishes up. Once done, he then puts me back through the machine and helps me get up off of the table and walks me out the scanning area door.
17:10: I meet my wife and my parents, and my Dad and I take a walk across the sky bridge to the Rotary House where John is there at the desk who checks me in. We have room 1036 for the night. We leave the bags, and return to the Mays clinic where my wife and mom are waiting.
We head back down to the light rail station, and catch the next train downtown. We get off at the Preston station and walk the 2 blocks to Frank’s Pizza.
18:12: We get a xl pizza, pizza rolls, onion rings, and chicken wings, all put through the pizza oven. Food taste so good when you have not eaten for about 24 hours.
19:30: All done eating for tonight. We are back at the light rail station heading back towards MD Anderson.
19:40: On the light rail we are.
19:50: Half way to the hospital, my wife realizes she didn’t pack her headache medicine or ibuprofen. At the next stop my wife and I jump of the rail, while my parents continue to MD Anderson. We walk to the next station going in the opposite direction, and take the rail back into town. We get off at the stop across from CVS and go grab the medicine she needs. We then jump back on the light rail going in the wrong direction so that we can jump on one going in the right direction without walking because the next station services trains going in both directions. Once on the train going in the right direction, we head back out of town to the TMC Transit Center.
20:40: Off the rail we are, walking back to the Duncan building, the Duncan building is closed, so we continue walking and go into the Mays clinic. To the skybridge we go, we try to cut into the shortcut through the Mendelsohn building, but the doors are locked. So we have to finish walking the skybridge to the main building then through the main building to another sky bridge that leads back to the Rotary House.
20:57: We are back at the Rotary House. The frozen yogurt station is still open so I grab my frozen yogurt.
21:20: All done with the frozen yogurt. We head upstairs and I take a nap…
23:50: I wake up from my nap and head downstairs to do some work.
23:59: Just getting situated and starting to get to work on their computers in the Business Center computer lab.
