Today, I had a bone scan at Methodist Hospital. My friend Dan drove me the 4 blocks to the hospital. We got there around 9 am and got up the the Nuclear Medicine Department within an hour. The technician brought out a metal canister that held the hypodermic needle in it. She gave me the shot in my right arm, then said that I could return in 3 hours. Another technician helped me into a wheelchair and drove me downstairs and outside to Dan's car.
Dan and I got breakfast at Oregon Diner and chitchatted about non-cancer topics. yay!
We stopped by the Post Office. I got a lovely package from my friend Kaja. It had a fantastic book of letters and a banner in it. Then we headed back to the hospital for the scan itself. Dan grabbed me a wheelchair and brought me up to the floor as we got to the hospital so that I wouldn't have to walk at all.
For the scan, the technicians strapped me to a platform that slid into a ring-shaped structure. It wasn't as enclosed as an MRI. It sat just a few inches in front of my face for a few minutes and then moved slowly down my body. I mostly rested with my eyes closed and imagined relaxing on beaches. The process took about 20 minutes. Then they re-oriented the machine twice and specifically scanned my hips, as bone loss typically shows up there first.
Afterwards, the technician drove my wheelchair out to the bus stop and I headed to work.
Surgery is in 3 more days. I am a little nervous, mostly about the immobility of my leg and the probable immobility of my arm, too. I'm also a little nervous about the biopsies, but there isn't anything to do about that now.
Needle count: 44
Touch count: 18
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