So this morning I got up at the un-Godly hour of 5:45 which I really preferred not to know came twice a day, and got myself ready and hauled my half awake bottom to the hospital for my 4 hour Delayed Stomach Emptying test.
One of my many issues is that I have gastroparesis (which I totally had to google how to spell!) which is basically that the bottom stomach muscle does not contract and open and close to let your food through. Instead mine has an opening about the size of a pencil eraser on a #2 pencil. It should be the size of the top of a coke can. Very big difference! Anywho, point being I have this and I have had it since 2005, when I did a 90 minute test.
I am on medicine for it, but now they are finding out the long term affects of this med is not great, so we're looking to find a different medicine that will hopefully work better as on top of taking this medicine twice a day- once a year I actually have to have this stomach muscle Botox'd open. Yes, you read that correctly. BOTOX. My stomach muscle has no wrinkles! ha ha ha I kill myself. The Botox works great, untill it wears off, and having it every year for the rest of my life is not something I want soooooooo hence the reason for the test this morning. My GI #2 wanted me to do the 4 hour one because apparently it tells more and has less variables. ok. whatever. Wow that was one long explanation!
So I trotted off to St E, where I should have my own parking space by now. I walked in and was handed a little pager!!! Just like Olive Garden!!! I was slightly taken aback and then just highly amused. I mean I knew they were giving me Radioactive Eggs to eat but really, did I need a pager? Were that many people lined up for Radioactive Eggs???!
Quickly I learned the pager was for your registration. That made a bit more sense. So I waited for it to buzz and when it did I went into Registration 1. And who do I see? but of course someone connected with Ivy! We joke but its true, every time I go to anything health related I run into a graduate or a student. Today was no different.
I just had to take a picture of my breakfast's presentation although I had messed it up a bit! I had the coolest, funniest RADTC person ever!! Shout out to Dan!! You were awesome and made this a slightly enjoyable experience!! ;) Anyways, Dan was joking that he was my waiter, so he put a "tablecloth" aka a towel down on the little table he wheeled to my chair and tried to arrange the eggs and the toast in an "aesthetic manner" he had even laid out the condiments in a certain arrangement, which sadly i had moved. And then he brought me a washcloth and had folded it down, as my "fine linen" just in case my napkins did not suffice! Seriously! He was killing me!! After I finished eating he came and cleaned my place setting! hahahahahahahah oh he was awesome i just loved him!! If he wasn't over 30 years older than me we might have had something going!Thankfully it wasn't anything that was terrible or hurt and there were NO NEEDLES INVOLVED! HALLELUJAH!! I just had to lay down on a table for a few mins and have scans done at timed intervals. For four hours.
Really the only bad part other than the four hours thing, was the hooligans that were in the waiting room. There were over 10 people waiting for a man who wasn't even in Radiology. And they talked NONSTOP. They were just rude and crass and made the whole waiting experience a tad unpleasant. I had brought my Art of teaching Piano book and my bible study book and had hoped to read alot in both but they were just so loud i couldn't concentrate. So that was a bummer. At one point there were 15 of them in the waiting room and actual patients couldn't even sit down. Kinda stunk but oh well! In the scheme of things it wasn't life altering just a tad annoying.
Dan did make it fun though. When he would come get me from the waiting room, the door back to the radiology had a window on it that you could see thru so I would be watching for him and I'd see him and think it was time for me and he would suddenly go off to the side of duck below the window to hide from me! And then he'd suddenly pop up! I'm telling you this dude was hilarious!! I found it highly amusing and would always laugh. Come to think of it maybe the people in the waiting room were wondering about me?!! HA!
I finally was done and stopped at DQ on the way to work for lunch since I hadn't eaten in over 4 hours!! Let me tell you those chicken tenders and mt dew never tasted better! I pretty much annihilated them!!!
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