My CT scan This Morning
You may recall that I had a number of weeks of back and hip pain. Basically from about Mother’s Day in May to about mid-July. Then, just when I’d decided to go to my doctor about it, the pain lifted away. I felt almost foolish reporting the pain I’d been having in the past tense.
Mind you, I had started taking joint health supplements, and extra calcium, and I think it was taking effect.
The doctor sent me for an x-ray and some lab work. Then I was called in when the x-ray showed calcification of the left kidney. It seemed like a mistake because I was no longer in pain of any kind. This usually implies kidney stones, but can be something else too. Immediately, I cut back my calcium to just one dose a day, in case I’ve been taking too much.
However, the doctor wanted to schedule me for a CT scan to check this out further. That appointment took place this morning. I’m curious myself to know what this will show. I’ve taken both my Mom and my Dad to these tests, but never had to go through it myself.
I left home before 7:30 and walked the 8 blocks to St. Paul’s hospital, stopping several times to take some photos of the city’s huge bowls of flowers in the boulevard on 22nd Street. (It’s impossible, I’d noticed, to take those photos when you are driving by).
There was the admitting process and waiting in the Diagnostic Imaging department, where I tried to continue with my morning prayer lists. Then I had to drink two large paper cups of water with some medication dissolved in it. I was informed that it might taste metallic but I was just glad for the refreshing water; I noticed no off taste.
A very nice attendant explained everything, hooked me up for an IV and explained about lying very still on the table that slid in and out of a large circular piece of machinery, and that I would feel a warm flush for about 30 seconds. A mechanical voice told me when to take a deep breath and hold it, and when I could breathe again.
In a few minutes another attendant was taking out the IV needle and telling me I could go. If my doctor doesn’t call me with the results in a week, I’m suppose to call and remind him.