Monday, July 14, 2008

Yowzer

Ya'll - can I just say that my body has been through the wringer today?! My goodness - I had no idea what I was getting into with this HIDA scan stuff... but seriously - I don't wish that on anyone!

Let me start by saying - thank God for John - he decided at the last minute that he'd rather take me to the appointment in the event that I had a reaction to the nuclear medicine or just couldn't handle driving myself home... what a lifesaver!

So basically - the test takes 2 hours... about 30 minutes of getting your IV inserted at the beginning and then taken out at the end... then an hour and a half of laying on a table suspended in midair. I guess that the machine is taking pictures during the hour and a half, but after the first hour they give you another injection of this stuff called CCK.

CCK is apparently something that our bodies produce naturally, but the injection is basically an overdose of the chemical that causes your gallbladder to contract and empty all the bile into your intestines. So there I am laying on the table, and they start telling me about this stuff... and they say: "Some people have no reaction to the injection, some have nausea, and others have intense cramping... and then there are some people that have both reactions."

I'm laying there thinking - ummm... lets just not do it because the idea of this isn't exactly a great start to my week... - but there's no getting out of it when you're suspended in midair, and basically can't move anything other than your head. So they gave me the injection through the IV, and that's when things went downhill...

I have never felt nausea like that, and the cramps were nothing short of childbirth... okay not quite that bad, but just about some of the worst pain I've experienced throughout this ordeal. I believe it was even worse than the pain I felt when I went to the ER... They told me that the symptoms would only last a couple of minutes, but I swear they lasted the entire remaining 30 minutes of the test.

From there - I had my abdominal ultrasound which checked my gallbladder, liver, spleen, kidneys, and I think that's the entire list.... but maybe there is something else in there that they looked at... but after the HIDA scan ordeal... having someone put goo on your stomach & sides - then mash down into your organs is NOT fun!

So, after 2 and a half hours of testing - I was so thrilled to see John sitting out in the waiting room to take me home. He did take me to lunch on the way home since I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink since the night before... and honestly all I wanted was some water... but we had a nice lunch and then I came home for a nap.

I don't know if the test caused the need for the nap or if it was a combination of that - and the fact that I haven't been sleeping lately... it's amazing how my mind just will not shut off these days! I lay in bed all night thinking about students that I might have, meetings for school teams that I might be on... problems with kids not completing assignments, my mentor teachers... if it has anything to do with a school... you name it and I'm constantly thinking about it. Is that weird? I don't know, but I am definitely emailing that principal on Wednesday to see if I can at least schedule a time to come talk to her when she does get back to the office!!

I haven't heard anything from the people that I interviewed with last week, so I think that I might have heard her correctly when she said that there were some other candidates to interview... I wonder if everyone goes through the same process that I did... because if they just had 2 or three other people to interview - that's 4 to 6 days of interviews... and not everyone has as open of a schedule as I did!

So that's about it - I'm just driving myself crazy, and hoping that the gallbladder situation is figured out in the next day or so...

4 comments:

  1. Gosh Kim! What an ordeal. I can certainly see how John's face at the end was a little piece of heaven. Surely wouldn't have been fun to do that ordeal and then drive yourself home. Glad you are home and resting.

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  2. Wow, I am SO not looking forward to gallbladder issues! That test sounds pretty miserable. I'm glad John was there with you!!

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  3. So when will you know something about the test? Man, that sounded like quite an ordeal, you poor thing!

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  4. Wow, that sounds terrible! When do you find out about the results? I pray that they figure out what is wrong and get you feeling better quickly!
    Huggles!

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