Category 3 on the Annoying Scale
Oct. 15th, 2007 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperApparently, I wasn't allowed to have that MRI-guided biopsy today.
Things started out well enough. Got to the hospital on time, got settled in as before in the MRI room, and this time even with extra pillows and things to try to make me as comfortable as possible and not stress my lower back too much. Doing the initial scans to try to figure out where the needle would have to go in went okay.
But when they rolled me out of the machine to numb me up and poke the actual catheter into me, I started having problems. My left knee started getting cranky about the angle at which it was settled. And I don't think the doctor numbed me up enough, because I felt her do something that actively hurt for a second or two--that must have been when she made the poke to go in.
All of a sudden, I started feeling nauseous. I went from telling them "I feel sick" to "I REALLY need to sit up", and the next thing I knew, they'd gotten me sitting up and the MRI tech dude (Steve, the same guy who'd done my MRI before) had a pan under my mouth and I was going BLARGH three or four times. I wiped my mouth as best I could, and after that, they helped me onto a gurney and got my legs up onto some pillows to get them higher than my head. They gave me some O2. And then they rolled me into the nearby exam room to have me lie quietly for a bit, while they rearranged the game plan.
I heard Dr. Carlson tossing around the term "vasovagal response". I had no earthly idea what this meant, so I had the nurse spell that out for me so I could come home and look it up--though from what she was telling me and from what I'm seeing online, it essentially means "I was about to faint". Goody. I'm not sure what the hell happened, whether it was some weird reaction I was having to the numbing agent, whether they weren't using enough of the numbing agent, whether they had me at a bad angle on the table (what with my left knee starting to hurt and all), whether it was just my system stressing out and going I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS NOW THANK YOU, or all of the above. Regardless, it's extremely irritating and I'm rather disgusted with myself.
As a result of all this, the procedure had to be completely aborted. Initially they decided to reschedule me for next week, but then bumped it up Fuckoff Early in the Morning this coming Wednesday, on the grounds that Dr. Towbin is waiting for the results of this before he makes the call on what he's going to do next, and well, cancer diagnosis so we really need to get this dealt with kthxbye. They will be consulting with Dr. Towbin to discuss whether it's advisable to give me a relaxant of some sort before they try this again. I'll be good with that, if that's what it takes.
Till then, I need to keep a teeny tiny ice pack on the dressing where they poked me; fortunately, the teeny tiny ice pack fits right into my bra. And I need to not do any heavy lifting, and generally take it easy, while I'm being cranky at this in general. This is not helping me get this whole situation done and dealt with. Grr.
Things started out well enough. Got to the hospital on time, got settled in as before in the MRI room, and this time even with extra pillows and things to try to make me as comfortable as possible and not stress my lower back too much. Doing the initial scans to try to figure out where the needle would have to go in went okay.
But when they rolled me out of the machine to numb me up and poke the actual catheter into me, I started having problems. My left knee started getting cranky about the angle at which it was settled. And I don't think the doctor numbed me up enough, because I felt her do something that actively hurt for a second or two--that must have been when she made the poke to go in.
All of a sudden, I started feeling nauseous. I went from telling them "I feel sick" to "I REALLY need to sit up", and the next thing I knew, they'd gotten me sitting up and the MRI tech dude (Steve, the same guy who'd done my MRI before) had a pan under my mouth and I was going BLARGH three or four times. I wiped my mouth as best I could, and after that, they helped me onto a gurney and got my legs up onto some pillows to get them higher than my head. They gave me some O2. And then they rolled me into the nearby exam room to have me lie quietly for a bit, while they rearranged the game plan.
I heard Dr. Carlson tossing around the term "vasovagal response". I had no earthly idea what this meant, so I had the nurse spell that out for me so I could come home and look it up--though from what she was telling me and from what I'm seeing online, it essentially means "I was about to faint". Goody. I'm not sure what the hell happened, whether it was some weird reaction I was having to the numbing agent, whether they weren't using enough of the numbing agent, whether they had me at a bad angle on the table (what with my left knee starting to hurt and all), whether it was just my system stressing out and going I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS NOW THANK YOU, or all of the above. Regardless, it's extremely irritating and I'm rather disgusted with myself.
As a result of all this, the procedure had to be completely aborted. Initially they decided to reschedule me for next week, but then bumped it up Fuckoff Early in the Morning this coming Wednesday, on the grounds that Dr. Towbin is waiting for the results of this before he makes the call on what he's going to do next, and well, cancer diagnosis so we really need to get this dealt with kthxbye. They will be consulting with Dr. Towbin to discuss whether it's advisable to give me a relaxant of some sort before they try this again. I'll be good with that, if that's what it takes.
Till then, I need to keep a teeny tiny ice pack on the dressing where they poked me; fortunately, the teeny tiny ice pack fits right into my bra. And I need to not do any heavy lifting, and generally take it easy, while I'm being cranky at this in general. This is not helping me get this whole situation done and dealt with. Grr.
