Sunday, December 13, 2015

My first CT scan experience......

So I missed the American Greetings Christmas party, because I had to go to get a CT scan.

The staffperson at the gyn's office told me that I had to empty my bladder first, then drink two bottles of water before the sonogram.

The sonogram tech was really happy about that I had a nice full bladder..... I was just worried about peeing the table! Here she is pressing on my abdomen with that wand. LOL.

CT scan.... if you never had one before, they give you a dye that gets injected into a vein. They'll put a 'port' in your vein, tape it in, and then inject the dye through that. I saw the 'port', but didn't get to see the dye being injected in. They had me put my arms over my head.

They told me that the dye would give a warm feeling, which was nice as that place was cold, and I was trying not to shiver. Not sure if that would mess up the CT scan. It makes you feel as if you've peed. LOL.

There's different side effects. The staff guy (who assisted the tech) told me that if I developed hives, rash or difficulty breathing, they would shut down the CT scan. But the only reaction I had was vertigo, which my maternal Grandma used to have. Though she also got big welts from CT scan dye.

The CT technician says to me afterwards, "Wow, those are some big fibroids." Oh, joy.

She also told me that I needed to drink plenty of fluids the next few days to flush the CT scan dye out of my system.

I'm now wondering if that was what was behind a really bad vertigo attack I had last night, as yesterday I only drank about 16oz.

Anyhow, that was my experience, in case anyone had never had a CT scan, you now have some idea of what to expect. Except for me they were attempting to scan the pelvic area, so someone getting a different area scanned might not get the peeing sensation.

I asked the tech if anyone had ever peed the table, and she said only once in 20 years. It was a 90-something year old man, who wasn't very aware of his surroundings.