Today was another day of testing aimed mostly at determining if there are problems anywhere that would exclude me from transplant surgery. When they are done, I(we) will know just about everything there is to know about my health condition. No organ left behind.
Blood tests - I believe now that they have fully recovered all the fresh blood they gave me earlier at Hermann Hospital. These lab vampires, phlebotomist, will drain me dry before this is all over. I hope the doctors agree.
Bond density - Lay on a table and let the machine take pictures. Easy and quick. The technician said I was "dense".
Xrays - In addition to CT scans and MRI's they also took xrays of my chest and mandible. This was more stressful than wedding pictures. Shoulders this way, head here, lift chin, move smidgin, ... don't move, wait for it, wait for it buzzz.
Pulmonary - Checking lung function to see how much of a blow hard I can be.
Heart - Echo cardiogram with bubbles looking at my heart and to see if my carotid arteries are corroded. Then lay on a table and let a machine take images of the heart while at rest and then under stress. No treadmill, they pumped me up using an injection(sress through chemisty). I broke their test however as I was back de-stressed before the picture taking was done. Lying down, soft music, the rhythmic humming of the machine, no stress here, I'm napping.
MRI abdomen - I know, I did this already last Friday. Well turns out they ignored me when I told them the contrast injection was leaking. Subsequently, the radiologist rejected the test and ordered it again. They apologized for putting me through the trauma again and credited back the failed test. I hope now they are happy now. This is critical however as these images are what the doctors are using to count ducks and size the issue.
What to expect now - There is a review of the imagery by the transplant team tomorrow that will yeild a recommendation to proceed forward or stop for some reason. By Friday we should get word that I will make the cut or not.
The hurting starts - I received the oral chemo medication yesterday. Has some nasty and unpleasent side effects. I feel good now and am hopeful that I can tolerate the abuse.
No comments:
Post a Comment