(no subject)

[staticlord]

Today’s appointments went well. My mom went out with us today to keep Karen company, and my Uncle Dennis met us up there. In the morning I had a MUGA scan. It is a video that looks at the heart over a 10 minute period. They use it to determine if my heart is strong enough to handle the damage from the chemo. When I first checked in they gave me a shot of a clear radioactive liquid and sent me back to the waiting room for an hour. When they came back to get me I got another shot of the same material and then I got to lie down in the machine. It was a very open structure, which would be good if you were a little claustrophobic. Before they started the test I also was connected to an EKG machine. Other than the 20 or so minutes that I had to spend in the machine with out moving it was an easy test. Between the MUGA and the CT we had about two hours to kill so we explored Roswell a little. We walked outside, visited the gift shop, and went to the resource room to get some more information. The CT was not as fun. After I checked in I was given a large (1/2 liter maybe) bottle of this thick stuff to drink. It reminded me of Mylanta only it had a slight orange taste. I didn’t really know what was going to happen next so I was a bit nervous. I had reason to fear too. The next step was having an IV inserted. Since I’m such a wuss I was uncomfortable from then on. I really need to get over my fear of needles. I was given another 8 oz of water to drink, and had to wait for about 30 minutes. When I was finally put in the machine I was so happy it was almost over. The machine itself looks like a big doughnut with a bed in the hole. When the machine starts up you can see the inside of the doughnut slowly start to spin around you and then pick up speed. I kind of felt like it was some sci-fi portal that was going to take me through a wormhole. Maybe I just saw “Contact” too many times. After I was run though that a few times they injected a dye through my IV. It was a strange sensation, almost like I could feel it run through my body. Since I couldn’t eat before the test I was starving by the time I got out of it. We went strait to the cafeteria to get me some pizza. When we got back into town I took the new lens for my camera out for a test drive at the Audubon. We saw quite a bit of wildlife including a mature bald eagle and a great blue heron.

Great Blue Heron

http://home.stny.rr.com/staticreality/Blue%20Heron%20small.jpg

Bald Eagle

http://home.stny.rr.com/staticreality/Bald%20Eagle.jpg

http://home.stny.rr.com/staticreality/Bald_Eagle_2.jpg