The Final Scan?

eOn Friday I had another scan, CT this time. In all I had to spend about 2 hours at Wythenshawe drinking water, passing it, being scanned once, being injectd witha dye which is opaque to X-rays, having an IV dripping the same stuff intome and then a final set of pictures.

The dye I gather does affect some people so they kept me for about 20 minutes after the scan to make sure I wasn't having an adverse reaction before I could get a cab home. Although I didn't have a bad reaction to it I was very tired yesterday falling asleep if I sat down for a few minutes. Mind you, as Ann always reminds me, it doesn't take a lot to put me to sleep.

Today I'm much better.

Better News

Fiona has managed to bring forward the CT scan to Friday 20th August which is much better. Hopefully I can still have the surgery in September.

Had she not been able to arrange an earlier date I would have tried to arrange the scan privately. I doubt if it would have cost too much.

I just wish I could afford to have the whole thing done privately but no chance.

Delayed

I was out and about on Friday when I received a phone call from Fiona M, the nurse, telling me that Mr. R had seen the MRI scan results but wanted a CT scan of my kidneys before operating and that I would get a letter from him explaining this and also I should get an appointment for the scan which she wanted done pretty urgently so as not to delay surgery. Well, yesterday, Saturday, I had both the letter from Mr R and an appointment for the new scan but not until September 16th which seems far too far away. I want to be having the surgery by then. Anyway, I've sent Fiona an e-mail telling her this as she requested & I'll probably ring her tomorrow as well. If she can't get that date brought forward I'll seriously think about having it done privately. I can't afford the surgery privately, of course, but the scan shouldn't be too expensive.

A Matter Of Confidence

Last Thursday we had a visit from a “stoma nurse”. If you’re wondering what on earth a “stoma” is, it’s also known as a “urinary diversion”. When your bladder is removed they use a section of the small bowel to form an alternative way for urine to leave your body. They connect the tubes from your kidneys to one end of it and bring the other end to the surface of your stomach near your navel where it sits proud and a bag can be placed over it to collect the urine.

Exciting stuff!

I’m going to have to learn to manage one of those bags, to change it, to empty it and so on before they’ll let me out of hospital and then when I get home I’ll be on my own except, of course, for Ann.

The nurse was actually very good. I already knew quite a bit of what she told us from Stephen but Ann found it interesting and she is now much less worried about how we will cope.

We discussed the unpleasant inevitability that I will make mistakes and the damned thing will leak in bed or into my clothes in the early days because there’s no doubt it will happen until I really become expert but that will happen.

The most important thing seems to be to gain confidence as the very prospect of having a leak in a public place is so embarrassing many people simply go into virtual seclusion so worried are they.

Enough of that for now though no doubt there will be more later.

On Friday I went for another MRI scan and now we just await the results and hopefully a date for the surgery.

I now want it as soon as possible. If it’s going to happen then let’s just get it over with.