Of CT scans and Newcastle
07.10.08, 6:19 pm

Bugger, too long a distance between entries! Anyway, on with the news. CT scan day turned into quite a hideous day... I haven�t had a more hideous day for quite some time. I�ll break down why:

� My bus didn�t turn up in the morning, so I had to walk into work in the rain. Not happy.
� Got to the hospital with Katie hideously early, so bummed around killing time, and then went on a 6-mile hike through the department looking for my floor.
� Once there I waited around, and then had my vitals checked. My pulse was 83, which was deemed too high, so I said that I�d try and calm down a bit.
� Fifteen minutes later the nurse tried again, and it was still 83. The all-powerful consultant wanted a resting heart rate of 66 or less (who can achieve this in a hospital testing room?!) so I had to take a beta-blocker, and then wait half an hour for it to take effect. After ten minutes it kicked in so strongly that I felt like falling over, mainly because she�s made me take 50 knobbing milligrams of the stuff.
� I was then taken off to have my cannular put in. The guy tried one arm, wiggled around in my vein for ages and then declared it impossible. He then tapped every vein that I own looking for a good one, and then finally shoved it in the other arm, and it hurt quite a lot. I then changed into a ridiculous gown, but did get to keep my jeans on at least.
� At this point I sent Katie home, as I was clearly going to be forever. I then waited for ages, before being taken into the CT room. There they fitted me with an ECG (resting heartrate = 48. THANKS FOR THAT.) and positioned me on a table, which was then moved up and forwards into the CT machine, which is like a big polo mint. After a dry run of holding my breath at various points while the camera took millions of x-rays of my heart, they injected me full of contrast dye, which felt VERY weird. You can feel it cold in your arm as they pump it in, and then a horrible metallic taste hits the back of your throat and a weird rushing feeling goes through your body, and because it tickles your bladder as it circulates round your body you kind�ve feel like you�re pissing yourself, which is not the pleasantest of sensations. Anyway, once the dye was in they did a couple more runs, and then I was done.
� Got out, waited for someone to take my cannular out. By this time it was quarter to one and I was SO hungry, as I hadn�t eaten anything since seven. I got the bus home, which then decided to break down halfway home, so I had to hike it up the mountain to the university. I finally got back to work at quarter to two, after leaving for the hospital at nine. Was beyond grumpy, and went straight for some lunch.

Anyway, I have my follow-up appointment with the consultant on Thursday afternoon, so will get my results then. Fingers crossed for a clean bill of health, not least because it�ll hopefully spell an end to all the incessant health wittering.

In other news, I�m off to Newcastle on Friday to see Mel, which I am beyond excited about. Becky is coming down Thursday night, and we�re then getting the Megabus the following day � three and a half hours, which isn�t too bad. A whole weekend with my two bestest friends will be amazing, not least because we haven�t all been together since the spring. Plus it means that I get to do a lot of pretentious posing by the many, many bridges over the Tyne. I have requested that I still get to watch X Factor on Saturday night though, if only to sate my Cheryl Cole mega-crush.

My dad and Amanda were down on Sunday. Amanda had broken her thumb (hello karma!), and that combined with the fact that she was on my territory made her a lot less cocky and generally obnoxious. She has, unfortunately, finally passed her motorbike test, but her son is still being a wayward twat at university, so it balances out. It was an okay day actually... they didn�t stay for too long, but I didn�t really mind as I was fancying a kip by half four anyway.

Off for a drink tonight with Em, who�s spent the last few weeks being an actual doctor in an actual hospital. It�s so scary how very grown up we all now are. And finally, Andy and I decided which song that we�re going to be performing at the Leukaemia Research Fund charity event that our floor is organising in December. He�s going to play the guitar and I�m going to sing, and we�re doing New York, New York by Frank Sinatra. I am going to be so incredibly nervous... just kill me now.

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