Went in at about 10:00 a.m. They asked the usual questions and then had me lie down on a bed while they gave me injection of radioactive dye. (Perfectly safe, they assured me…)
They then did a scan of the blood flow in my legs and then sent me on my way, saying the dye needed time to reach my bones, and to come back at 1:00 p.m. I was to drink lots of water to help the dye circulate. Other than that, I could eat, drink or do whatever.
(I was afraid the dye would make my pee glow green, but it did not. Whew!)
I wondered, as I was microwaving my lunch, if it was such a good idea to stand in front of the microwave with all that radioactive dye sludging through my veings... I got lost in that thought for so long that before you know it I heard the beep that my food was done. Oh well!
I went back after lunch and then we spent the next 40 minutes or so taking pictures. For those of you who have never had one, it is not as fast as an X-Ray. Each picture takes between two and five minutes. The technician said that’s how long it takes for the scanner to pick up the gamma rays.
I got pictures of my knees, my legs, and my feet, both lying down and standing. It was rather a cool process.
Afterwards I asked if I could look at the scans and… well… it was kinda neat. I did see some dark spots. Apparently the dye gravitates towards areas where the body is trying to heal itself… but to my completely and hopelessly untrained eye… both my tibia (or is that "tibias", in plural?) looked exactly the same.
I thought, “God, I hope I don’t go back to the doctor and he tells me it’s all in my head!”
It was my physiotherapist who noticed the swelling in my leg originally and told me to get it checked out, after all!
But anyway… what do I know? I’m no doctor, so I’ll wait for my appointment on March 10.
In the meantime… ice is my friend.
Oh yeah... and I'm still enjoying the six-day program of weight training! I think I might actually be getting stronger. Woo hoo!
7 comments:
Yay, for the weight training.
Hope your swelling disppears soon and you get to feeling much better soon.
march 10????? march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????march 10?????
i dunno if i can wait that long, sarah! i'm taking YOUR visits kinda as my visits too. good grief. march 10? that's like .. oh, i guess that's not too long. but when it's as important as daily exercise...it's a LONG time!
where did you see the 'dark spots'? and i suppose they (techician) gave you NO IDEA as to WHAT THEY WERE? right? well. good grief.
i'm glad you didn't have to DRINK radioactive dye!
and i live in the TriCities, WA, where HANFORD is located. when i travel people always ask me if we glow here. too funny. i dunno if it's all that safe tho. i'm trying to keep an eye on all the sparse scalps i see these days. to me, it seems a LARGE # of women (young, too) w/ the very little hair right at the forehead and directly behind that. if we're gonna lose our hair, or thin out, why can't it be under the top layer, and behind our ears????
now, i ask you!
love ya
ps: good job on wts! great!
Hi - just hanging out and wishing you luck.
Don't you love these doctors? And as my mother says, you just have to hope they know what they're doing.
Sounds like you're in good hands -- all the best to you and your tibiae (I googled and found that somewhere -- I'd trust it a little less than I'd trust the doc.)
Good luck with the test results.
I wonder what the first doctors who experimented with x-rays thought about the process. It would have been interesting to have observed and been part of that advancement in technology.
...something I might just have to look up!
wow, this is fascinating! I just read through the last few entries about going to the specialist, etc. Glad you got a brace and it works!
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