My life seems to be full of going to the doctors and hospitals and after a while it gets tedious and boring at the moment it seems to be the only time we get out of the house. I rang the doctors before we were due to leave for the Leeds General Infirmary this morning, (I'm going there for my CT scan as St James's can't fit me in), I've been in a lot of pain over the past week. Before Christmas I was taking Oramorph a morphine based liquid every four hours and 60mg of Zomorph, which is a morphine tablet, however I discovered a lot of my sickness was down to these so I stopped taking them and started taking the highest dose of co-codomol that I had in the cupboard and putting up with the pain. But, the pain has got unbearable now I'm not sleeping I have constant stomach cramps and pain in my back, and typically, it seems to intensify when its time for bed, so I'm going to try and get an appointment at the doctors. I rang, I was told as I needed an afternoon appointment I had to ring back after one... why is nothing simple? I am starving too... I've never had to starve for a CT scan before but that's what the LGI want me to do. Its amazing for the same procedure how many hospitals do it differently. For instance, Pinderfields hospital, you have to get in a gown and drink an Aniseed liquid over the course of an hour and then you have a Cannula put in and x-rays are taken whilst you go in and out of a polo mint that sounds like a washing machine on a spin cycle, but you don't have to starve. At Dewsbury you have to starve for eight hours before and drink the Aniseed liquid and have a Cannula put in, but you don't get into a gown you just have to take off anything with metal in, for instance an underwire bra and anything with zips so I tend to wear leggings and a jumper when i go there, it saves time. St James's no starvation, no Aniseed liquid, you do have to have a Cannula put in, but you only drink water over the course of an hour and again anything metal has to be removed. So who knows what procedure the LGI will have but for starters I've had to starve since seven so naturally I'm starving!! I haven't been to the LGI for years and I've never driven there so I was a bit apprehensive about us finding the way this morning. We don't have our sat nav at the minute its a Sue's house so we've printed off instructions from the LGI website and I'm hoping we will get there okay. Fingers are crossed along with toes.
We set off at nine o'clock as my appointment isn't until ten should be plenty of time. According to instructions we were to leave the motorway at junction two our first mistake was leaving at junction 2A. We realised straight away it was the wrong exit and rejoined the motorway to carry on, unfortunately this delayed us by about fifteen minutes due to traffic. This time we came off at junction two followed the directions and they were spot on. I was impressed, my sat nav normally gets me lost this was straight forward. We arrived at the hospital and the next job was to find a parking space we drove into the hospital where the Jubilee wing just as someone exited one of the disabled bays... we had a parking space yippee. One plus point about having cancer I now have a disabled badge lol. So we parked up and headed inside. We were fifteen minutes early I was given the usual form to fill in by the receptionist and told to take a seat. Next came the jug filled with a clear liquid and a cup I pulled a face.
"Its only water" the radiologist told me.
"What no aniseed?"
"No aniseed" she laughed.
"Oh thank god" I laughed with her.
"You need to drink it slow over the course of an hour but keep your last cup til we call for you"
"Yes fine" I nodded.
"Shall I go get some magazines then?" Lee asked.
"Yes please" I gave Lee my bank card and off he went.
At around quarter to eleven I was called through by a nurse to have my Cannula put in this enables the xray day to be put into you whilst you're having the scan and helps them highlight the tumours to see if they have shrunk any. I have a PICC line in my left arm as you probably all know by now I think I've mentioned it before that only leaves them one arm to use to get the Cannula in. Unfortunately my right arm is the worst one for veins. After the fourth attempt at the inside of my right elbow it was getting painful I do have a good vein there but it moves, tricky little beggar it is. Eventually the nurse gave up and went for a doctor.. its like this every three months (I had such good veins before my operation in 2010 now they've gone into hiding). The doctor came in and had a good look at my arm for a good ten minutes eventually she went for the vein in the bend of my wrist, it was painful but it was in. I just had to be careful not to bend my wrist before the x-ray. I got back out to the waiting room and Lee.
"You okay?" I showed him my wrist.
"It hurts like hell" I told him.
"It was a last resort trust me" I replied and sat down. I hadn't been sitting long when I was called in for the x-ray.
"Mrs McEvoy" ooh someone got it right my surname is pronounced Mac-a-voy, the most popular one I've had so for is Ma-key-voy I sound foreign and I'm not lol. I got up from my seat leaving my stuff with Lee.
"I hear we had some difficulty getting your cannula in?"
"Yes its the same every three months" I told him.
"So you've had CT scans before then?"
"Yes I'm used to them" I told him. When I got into the scanning room the radiographer asked me if I had an underwire bra on and the answer was yes I knew there was something I'd meant to do.
"If you just bob behind the curtain and take it off"
"That may be tricky with one arm" I told him and he looked at my wrist.
"I'll get a female nurse to help you" he told me. A woman appeared at my side.
"I've undone it I just need help getting this right arm out it hurts when I bend my wrist" she looked at the Cannula in my arm.
"That's a tricky spot isn't it?"
"Yes it was last resort" I explained. Bra removed the male radiographer came back into the room.
"Right Loraine only difference with us to St James's is that we get you to go in feet first. I just need you to finish your drink and lay down with your head on the pillow. So I take it you know to expect it to be noisy don't you?"
"Yes, washing machine on a spin cycle" I replied and he laughed.
"It won't be long. I'll inject the dye slowly because I think it may hurt if I don't. Is that a PICC line you have in?" He asked.
"Yes"
"Its a shame we can't use it but the dye we inject can cause the line to break which is why we're not allowed" he told me.
It was time to go in the washing machine and a series of someone telling me to "hold your breath" then "breath normally" this went on for around twenty minutes until all the dye had gone. Then that was it I was finished and time to go home. I found a toilet to put my bra back on and then headed out to meet Lee.
"Finished?"
"Yep free to go, the washing machine spin cycle is over" I chuckled. We headed back to the car now to find our way out of Leeds on the one way loop system this would be interesting... It took us half an hour and we ended up at St James's but we knew our way home from there so it wasn't too bad. We called at the doctors on the way home and I made an appointment for five o'clock. Unfortunately it was with a Doctor that I didn't like.
"Hi" I called as I walked back in from the doctors. Logan and Lee's voices greeted me. "I've done your tea it just needs warming through, do you want it now?"
"Yes please." I replied. "He's changed my pain medication to Oxycodone but its only 5mg I can take up to 10mg but its only every twelve hours I can use the Oxynorm liquid as a top up if its needed but only every four hours. Lets hope it works. Have you had tea?" I asked Lee and Logan.
"I had a fry up" Logan replied "It was very nice" he added.
"What about you?" I'll have some bolognese later Lee replied as he handed me a plate. Lee did that regularly, skipping meals I hoped he would have some later. Logan wanted to watch a film so we agreed we would wait until Jenna came home to see if she wanted to watch it as well.
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