Saturday, January 26, 2013

One More Road Trip...

We're on the road again today...

I mentioned it a week or two ago, the "poking and prodding" has begun again. Last week, on Tuesday, I arrived at Kelowna General Hospital for a CT Scan at 10:00am. I was handled promptly, it was pretty impressive IMO, but that's just my first impression.

The hospital was very busy and it is also undergoing some renovations. I knew where I was going, but I imagine there are many folks who might get a little confused by the traffic flow in and around the building. Once I checked in, I made my way to the diagnostic imaging area. The nurse inserted an IV and I was ushered into a room where the heavy duty equipment resides. The staff had me hop on to a bed, they made a few adjustments to my position, then they inserted a contrasting solution of some sort into the IV.

Apparently, this stuff can create a burning sensation near the point of entry and can also make it feel like you are "wetting yourself". I experienced neither of these "pleasures", but I understand the staff have to explain the potential side effects.

The bed I was on moved in and out beneath a scanner that gave my head and neck a pretty good once over. It all took about 10 minutes and there was nothing at all painful or uncomfortable about the process. When I got up, one of the staff took me into another room, removed the IV and sent me on my way. I found Gay in the waiting room and delivered her back to work. It might have been about 10:45am by now, so again, it was a pretty quick trip, all things considered.

On my way home, I stopped by my doctor's office in West Kelowna. I hadn't checked in with him yet in 2013, since before we traveled to the States. I wanted to pop by to double check a couple of things and see if he thought we should do some blood work again to get a sense as to how things are progressing.

When he walked into the exam room, it was about 11:20am. He cracked open my folder and the first thing he said was, "it looks like you had a CT Scan awhile ago...let's see what's up."

I said, "uh, actually that was about an hour ago...you mean you already have the results?"

He looked surprised, double checked the date on the report and said, "yeh...January 22...here it is...let's get you a copy".

So, it would appear that once the CT Scan was completed at KGH, the results were entered and faxed to both my family physician and the team at the BC Cancer Agency. The time on the fax copy was "10:48am".

Now that's service, isn't it!

My doctor had no idea I was going to pop in that morning, so the report must have been sitting in my folder for less than half-an-hour before I arrived at his office.

I'll report on the results next week, but suffice to say that for now, everything is heading in the right direction!

We head out to Vancouver today for a PET CT Scan on Monday morning. This is the same scan that was undertaken on August 13 last year, the scan that identified exactly where the primary tumor was located and what the cancer cells were doing in there. Traveling to Vancouver this time of year is probably not going to be a picnic, so we are giving ourselves an extra day, just in case we are confronted with lousy road conditions or crummy weather. The cost of these trips also pisses me off, but all things considered, we'll call it an "investment".

I'm not certain how quickly the results of this scan will make their way back to Kelowna, but I will be sitting down with the crew at the BC Cancer Agency on Feb. 5 to discuss everything.

I suppose, if we're really blessed, we'll be tying a bow on this entire adventure once and for all. At least that's our mindset.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping the faith!

2 comments:

  1. Everything will be good I know it! Take care xoxo

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  2. Just another dreary day in Vancouver...rainy and cool. Will be nice to get this over with tomorrow!

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