07/09/2012

6:45: Wake up and take Buster out.

7:15: Get dressed with loose and relaxed fitting clothing for the PET Scan, and also drink 20 oz of water prior to the appointment as per the instructions.

7:45: Left the house for the hospital/Yenni Treatment Center for the PET Scan, my wife is driving me just in case I can’t drive myself home.

8:00: Checked in and filled out all necessary paperwork.

8:15: I was given a berry smoothie to drink for breakfast by the nurse checking me in. It smelled great, just like a blueberry muffin. The taste on the other hand was only a hint of blueberry. It was kinda disgusting and chalky. Not something I would finish I’d didn’t have to. Blah

8:25: The nurse came and got me and took me to the prep room.

8:30: The object here is to take one needle to be used to draw blood and to to administer the radio active solution into my blood. The first stick wasn’t a great stick, on my right anticube, but enough to get some blood for the glucose test which i had a 93 reading. I told him that for the CT scan they used my left anticube. He said that he would try that later if he had to. They pulled it out, got another needle and tried to stick me again on my right forearm, but that didn’t work like he wanted to either. He finally got the needle like he wanted in my left anticube, pulled some blood to pull the air out of the line, and then gave me the radioactive solution and flushed the line with a saline solution and then pulled the needle out. At this point I have 3 red pieces if tape wrapped around me.

8:35: I am told to rest for an hour and not fool with my phone or anything else, just sit there. The nurse puts a blanket over me then pulls up the lazy boy foot rest, and tells me to take a nap. I just sit there and think.

9:35: They take me back to the PET Scan machine and have me lay down and out ny hands over my head. They tell me the scan will take about 25 mins. I go through the whole machine once, and then it takes me all the way out the other side and starts bringing me back in by sections. The sections are about 9 inches per scan and each scan area takes about 2-3 mins. He comes over the speaker ever 4 minutes letting me know how much time is left. You are told not to move at all except to breathe. Not moving is easy in the beginning, but takes some concentration as the time goes on. The scan is very quiet, not much noise at all. Very relaxing. The nurse then came back in and moved the platform I was on down and removed the pads under my knees and helped me up. He then let me take a picture of the 2.5 million dollar machine that I was just in.

He then lead me back to the waiting area where my wife was waiting.

We went back to the car and drove a block to the hospital parking garage for my pulmonary test. ONCE AGAIN PEOPLE CANNOT PARK. There was at least 7 parking spots that were unusable because people take up 2 spots when parking.

10:05: Checked in at patient registrationon the second floor.

10:15: Met with a billing member to check in.

10:20: Done with billing, made our way through the hospital maze to the main elevators, to the third floor, and then through another maze to Pulmonary Diagnostics.

10:30: Checked in with Pulmonary.

10:40: I was taken into the back to begin my round of test. For all the test i would be breathing into a machine. The first test was a simple breathing test, breath in deep and exhale completely. I did this 3 times. Next the chamber door was closed, we had to wait 2 minutes for my body to warm up the chamber so that we could begin the test. I was told to pant and then after some panting the air flow was cutoff to measure my resistance of breathing in and out. After 3 of these test, the chamber was then opened and my next test began. This test was a medium speed test where I would suck in as much air as possible and then blow out as long as possible, and then suck in again. We this test twice. The next test was to breath in and out deeply, then breathe in as quick and as fast and as deep as possible, hold it for 8 seconds, then breathe out quick and when told. Next we moved into another room where the first test was to breathe in as deep and as fast as possible and blow out as fast and as hard as possible, then breathe in again once we couldn’t exhale anymore. This was done 4 times. The final test was having to breathe in and out as hard as possible and as quick as possible like you were hyperventalating. We did this twice and then we were good to go. My wife took the pictures of the tests in action.

11:35: Heading back through the maze down the elevator through another maze and back to the car.

11:40: Back at the car, time to head home.

11:55: Back home after a day of tests. I can eat again. I finish up the bag of chocolate chip cookies ny wife brought home from work last night, changed my clothes, and now time to head back to the office.

12:30: Time to head on back to the office…

12:45: Fill up my van with Gas, great Gas Buddy App for the cheapest gas 😛

1:00:  Meet with a client to finish installing the phone adapter for the fax line for faxing out, all incoming faxes are relayed to email.

1:35: Done with my client, time to head back to the office:

1:45: Back at my office, and time to catch up on some work and billing. I startwd to work on a letter to notify my clients about my situation and that Hands Free Help Technologies would still be providing computer support and services as always throughout my ordeal. I noticed it was almost 3:00 and needed to run to the bank before the end of the business day for transactiona.

2:54: I left the office.

2:56: At Iberia Bank.

3:00: Back at the office. I continued to work on the email.

3:26: I retrieved a call from a client that needed some help with a website and was checking if I was in the office before stopping by.

3:45: My client stopped by. I updated him on my situation and then got down to business. We did a quick face lift by changing the theme to the sight. I will do some more editing tonight by adding the graphic to the front page and adding a contact us page. He will also get some pictures of his product and services in action for better credibility and to be able to better showcase his product rather than the sit being mostly words.

4:30: We were done conversing and planning out the website, so it was time to finish my email. I added the images from today to the blog and then sent the email out.

I received a number of emails expressing prayer and support. All the support and prayers are greatly appreciated as you can never get too much!

5:15: I am headed uptown with a toner for one client and a modem for the other. I talked with both clients giving them updates on my previous results, and that I am not looking forward to tomorrow because of the bone marrow biopsy.

6:30: I am heading back to the house for a real meal, I haven’t had real food since Saturday night with the Super Seafood Pasta. Ny mother had picked up fried chicken from a local grocery in the area that always has good fried chicken and okra, they also have good boudan sausage too.

I got home and just feeling tired, I felt a little tired driving around, but now I am home it is hitting me.

7:30: I get an early bath. I can’t eat any food after midnight.

I just laid in bed working on the computer catching up on some work, I finished up around 12:30 AM.  Time to get some rest, tomorrow is going to be a long day…