Here is how my day went.
- Arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am
- Registered for my first appointment
- 7:05 Vitals and Blood Draw. This is were things start to get intresitng. The nurse prints out labels for my blood draw, fifteen labels = fifteen vials of blood. The nurse then leaves to get the Phlebotomist. The Phlebotomist comes in, reads the labels chuckles and then leaves the room. She comes back and I inquire about what was so funny and come to find out one of the blood tests to be drawn was a pregnancy test.
- 7:30 Next it was off to meet with the patient coordinator (SD). We have 30 minutes before my next appointment. She informs me that my schedule for today has changed, due to the fact that she has to leave early today to go play golf with her Dad, really? I know it fathers day weekend, but really? So we start getting some papers signed early in the time we have.
- 8:00 off to the pulmonary function test. This test was rather easy, basically I sat in a glass box and did breathing in a tube through my mouth with my nose pinched shut. Below is a picture of the actual box I sat in.
Once in the glass booth I had to breath normally, inhale and exhale as deep as I could. Just when you think you have exhaled all the air from your lungs the technician tells you to keep going.
- 9:00 Psychosocial Meeting, believe or not this was one of my highlights of the day. This doctor was fantastic. She suggested services we were not aware of and truly had concern for my well being. She also suggested I start taking a new medicine and would talk this over with SD and Dr. HF. She knew a lot about the stem cell process and helped me prepare for the days to come. I believe this meeting went longer than expected, but it was time well spent.
- 10:00 back to meet with SD, so she can leave early, this was a change from the original schedule. SD already has the prescription for the new drug from the 9:00 meeting, funny since Dr. HF is out of the office today. We go over some more papers and then I sign the papers. We have a few minutes for some of my questions, but we are starting to run late for the next appointment. The tour of the unit were I will be staying has to be postponed until the next visit.
- 11:15 or there about. Time to meet with the surgeon who will put in the central line. This is somewhat of an interesting visit. First the nurse that works with this doctor is either new or very frazzled. She has to enter my medications that I take into the computer, at times I don't think she is familiar with the medication names. Next she tries to take my temperature but is unsure how to use the device and eventually gives up. Then she tries to take my blood pressure and states she will have the doctor do it since he is much better at this than her. Where am I, did I just enter a new dimension? Next the doctor comes in, seems to be upset that we were late for the appointment. He explains how and were the central line will be placed and has a sample central line so we know what it looks like. He takes my blood pressure and it is high, which gives him concern and states I should alert this to my primary doctor. Next he has a paper with the surgery date of July 6th, I state that I thought the surgery was scheduled for July 7th. He checks something comes back and agrees it will be July 7th. I also remember the new prescription I just received and bring that to the doctors attention. Not remembering the drug name I have to pull the prescription out to show him. He asks, did you see Dr. HF today; he knew he was not in; and I state no I did not. I think I might have gotten someone in trouble. I do not leave this appointment with a level of comfort.
12:30 - time to switch buildings and find the nuclear medicine department. On our way to nuclear medicine we pass a cafeteria and grab a quick sandwich, what a relief I thought I was going to miss lunch.
1:00 - Muga Scan. I register and proceed to the waiting room. I start to read the paperwork as we wait and notice my diagnosis is listed as Hodgkins Lymphoma, though I don't think this has anything to do with how the scan will be done I bring this up to the technician. He agrees that it does not impact the test, but he would get it changed. The Muga scan test is another easy test. I lay down on a table, the technician draws a vial of blood. He then mixes the blood with a isotope (marker) which takes about 15 minutes. Then he injects the blood back into my body. Next three leads are attached to my chest, then I am slid into or near the machine that will take pictures of my heart. Each picture takes ten minutes and two pictures are taken. Below is a picture of the machine used.
2:30 - EKG. The quickest test by far. The technician puts ten leads at different points on my body. One on each leg, two at the top of the chest and the rest at different points on the left side of the chest. After the leads are hooked up, she runs the test, which seemed like 30-60 seconds and then she removes the leads.
3:00 - Chest X-Ray. Another quick test, though this part of the hospital seems to be very old and outdated. The test is rather simple, stand in front of the X-Ray machine and the picture is taken.
That is it, the day of testing is complete.
The 11:15 appointment where I stated the surgeons nurse, she was not a nurse. She was his secretary and also his wife.
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