Muga Scan & Bone Scan

I can do this. Two of the imaging type tests I needed to have done before I meet with the surgeon again have been completed.

My camera died on December 22nd and I grieved for it during each imaging session. I was constantly seeing fotos as I went thru these. I am a photographer. I see thru snapshots that I compose in my mind and I do want to tell this story, not only thru written words, but especially thru my photography. I owe it to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bras  to tell my personal story both visually and orally. Right now, however, I have a few obstacles to overcome.

I do have ideas about how to accomplish the telling of my story and other issues and I will share those soon.

On January 2nd I went to the Nuclear Medicine Department at UNMH and had a MUGA scan. A MUGA scan looks at the heart to determine if I can handle specific types of chemo therapy. They drew some of my blood, took it and did something magical to it :-) and then put it back into my veins. Then using this complicated machine they took pictures of my heart. All I had to do was lie there, remaining fairly still for about 40-minutes. The staff there were wonderful They made sure that I was comfortable and answered all of my questions.

On January 3rd at 10am I went back to Nuclear Medicine and we performed a bone scan. This time they injected something into me and sent me home for three hours. After I came back, they did a scan of my bones. This took around 30-minutes. At the beginning, I was lying on this narrow table/bed like thing and part of the imaging equipment was arranged as close to my face as possible without touching me. During the process the equipment moves down the length of my body as it scans my bones.  Only a few minutes into the procedure, I had to cough. The equipment was still over my face. I did not know if I had to lie still like you do with an MRI, or if a little movement would be OK. SO, I held the cough in for as long as I could. I knew that once I coughed, it might be hard to stop. As I struggled to hold in the cough, my eyes began to water. Eventually, I coughed. The natural reflex to cover your mouth, but my face was still covered by the imager and I needed to keep my arms at my sides. I had to cough three more times before I was through.

Again, the staff at Nuclear Medicine was kind and helpful and this procedure went well.

I wish I had a foto to place with this thread, but I don't.