Test, Test, 1, 2, 3

Ok, so I'm an ubergeek and hubby is a sound engineer, hence the title.  To what does it refer?  My CT scan tomorrow.  Since my downturn has  been rather dramatic hubby started bugging my doc to find out my blood test results from the visit to the infectious disease doc several weeks ago.  Well, I don't have any normal or exotic infections but they both decided that a CT scan of my abdominal cavity was a good idea.  In the old days they would have just cut me open for a look see.  They have gotten a little more high tech of late.

What this means for me is two barium shakes and several doses of steroids.  I am one of those people that is highly allergic to CT scan dye.  I have only had one scan and as soon as they injected the dye my throat closed up and I had trouble breathing.  Luckily it went away very quickly before I really had time to panic.  I still felt terrible after the scan and told the tech.  She just looked at me and said "that is normal.  There is the door.   Take a left to the dressing rooms.  Your done."  Somehow I managed to drive myself home and when I still felt awful I called in sick to work and started hunting around on the web.  Of course everyone is trying to sell CT scans and not wig people out about the procedure so all I could find were sites claiming how safe CT scans are.  I must have called the hospital to get the name of the dye.  Once I had that, I looked it up on one of the drug sites and found the side effects which did include anaphylaxis.  I called the hospital back to report the incident to make sure that tech didn't toss anyone else out that was having an allergic reaction.  There was stunned silence on the other end of the phone.  No I wasn't going to sue the hospital. 

This incident occurred about ten years ago but due to the near death experience it pretty fresh in my memory.  Hence I'm a tad nervous about tomorrow.

Since they are scanning all of my innards and I have this nasty allergy, I have to start the drugs tonight.  I have a barium shake and prednisone dose to look forward to before bed.  Then another shake and prednisone dose in the morning in lue of breakfast.  Then a dose of benedryl.  Ugh.  No food.  No drink.  This is NOT going to be pleasant.  My doc purposely put off the scan until Tuesday.  He wanted me there when the A team was at the hospital rather than the C team that was in over the holiday weekend.  I'm concerned with the docs' haste.  What are they worried about that I have to have a CT scan so quickly?  If I didn't have the allergy to contend with they would have had me in there Saturday.  Ok, I'm getting a little freaked out.  I'm sure things will go well.  The hospital I'm using this time is very good.  They have a great reputation and I have had several surgeries there over the years and they have treated me very well.  They also have an excellent reputation so I know they will take care of me.  I'm just nervous.  I'm just a little freaked out.