It's always something, or today's misadventure
1. Before we get to Today's Misadventure, I must say that my lost weekender bag arrived in town around 7 a.m. today. So by the time I got home this afternoon, it had been delivered to our house. YAY!
2. An old man's lament, with which I can certainly identify ;)
3. Today's Misadventure: I had a cardiac CAT scan today. At least, that's what the techs tried to do at the big hospital. The scan was scheduled for 1 p.m., so I had to be there at 11:30 for prep, which included getting an IV so they could pump the contrast medium (iodine in saline solution) into me at the appropriate times. junesrose, this will interest you particularly. The "infusion rate" required an 18-gauge needle, so the med tech had to keep poking me until she could find a big enough vein. After 2 unsuccessful pokes in my right elbow, the needle ended up in a vein in my right bicep. Not fun but I tolerated it. They took me into the room with the CAT scanner and the first part of the test went okay. Then apparently they had to infuse more contrast medium and that's when things went wonky. I suddenly had horrible pain in the IV site, so painful I started crying and freaking out. The techs raced in and put ice on my arm and removed the IV. The doctor, Dr. JK, was even holding my hand and trying to calm me down. At least I didn't scream. Turned out that the infusion rate was too fast for the size of my vein, which pushed the needle out of the vein and into the muscle, under the skin. The tech said the needle "infiltrated" and caused a lump the size of a baseball. So no wonder I was crying. Once I got calmed down they gave me the option to continue or not. I figured I was already there, so I might as well let them try the other arm. Well, the tech poked me in my left elbow AND my left forearm and couldn't get the needle in. When she suggested trying a vein just above my elbow, on the inside of my arm, I said I'd had enough. Dr. JK said they did get some decent information from the early part of the scan, though nowhere as complete as he had wanted, but he understood why I didn't want to try again. He said I'd been through plenty today. So they wheeled me back to where I started and I had "recovery" for about 45 minutes, during which time they ordered a meal for me from the cafeteria because I hadn't had lunch yet. So I had pork roast, sage dressing and mixed vegetables (all yummy) for lunch at about 3:15 p.m. By the time I got dressed, left the hospital, got to my car and drove away, I was so wrung out I decided not to go back to work. Even if I'd gone I would have been there less than an hour.
4. So I missed "Idol Gives Back". Anything interesting happen?
2. An old man's lament, with which I can certainly identify ;)
3. Today's Misadventure: I had a cardiac CAT scan today. At least, that's what the techs tried to do at the big hospital. The scan was scheduled for 1 p.m., so I had to be there at 11:30 for prep, which included getting an IV so they could pump the contrast medium (iodine in saline solution) into me at the appropriate times. junesrose, this will interest you particularly. The "infusion rate" required an 18-gauge needle, so the med tech had to keep poking me until she could find a big enough vein. After 2 unsuccessful pokes in my right elbow, the needle ended up in a vein in my right bicep. Not fun but I tolerated it. They took me into the room with the CAT scanner and the first part of the test went okay. Then apparently they had to infuse more contrast medium and that's when things went wonky. I suddenly had horrible pain in the IV site, so painful I started crying and freaking out. The techs raced in and put ice on my arm and removed the IV. The doctor, Dr. JK, was even holding my hand and trying to calm me down. At least I didn't scream. Turned out that the infusion rate was too fast for the size of my vein, which pushed the needle out of the vein and into the muscle, under the skin. The tech said the needle "infiltrated" and caused a lump the size of a baseball. So no wonder I was crying. Once I got calmed down they gave me the option to continue or not. I figured I was already there, so I might as well let them try the other arm. Well, the tech poked me in my left elbow AND my left forearm and couldn't get the needle in. When she suggested trying a vein just above my elbow, on the inside of my arm, I said I'd had enough. Dr. JK said they did get some decent information from the early part of the scan, though nowhere as complete as he had wanted, but he understood why I didn't want to try again. He said I'd been through plenty today. So they wheeled me back to where I started and I had "recovery" for about 45 minutes, during which time they ordered a meal for me from the cafeteria because I hadn't had lunch yet. So I had pork roast, sage dressing and mixed vegetables (all yummy) for lunch at about 3:15 p.m. By the time I got dressed, left the hospital, got to my car and drove away, I was so wrung out I decided not to go back to work. Even if I'd gone I would have been there less than an hour.
4. So I missed "Idol Gives Back". Anything interesting happen?