Wednesday, March 15, 2006
James, Elvis. Elvis, James.
(Notes from 3/7/06)
The weekend passed, Monday flew by (with a few odd looks from my coworkers as I explained that I would certainly be out the following morning to have my head examined), and I headed down to the clinic for my head CT. For a variety of reasons, I went by myself -- particularly since I had every intention of having the pictures taken, then trundle right off to work.
I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but my frame of mind wasn't really on my headaches (though I had a nice one going in). I recognize that I'm just a transplanted Minnesotan, but I've always been a baseball fan, and the passing of Kirby Puckett was hitting me harder than I expected. I'm sure that the imaging technicians thought I was fearing "the worst" as I would walk back to the machines, tears in my eyes -- when really I just couldn't stop reading the Kirby Puckett testimonials in the newspaper in the waiting area. I was stupidly embarrassed by that!
The CT scan wasn't bad at all. Like being stuck inside a spinning donut up to my shoulders. At least I could fold my hands across my stomach and mostly relax. Only took something like fifteen or twenty minutes, then they asked me to wait so that the radiologist could take a peek at it. I didn't know what to expect, but by this point, I was starting to come around to the idea that I sort of wanted to find some reason for these headaches (and I started longing for the Alleve that I knew was in my car). I know, makes no sense that now I wanted to find something, but what are you going to do?
So, I'm back in the waiting area, practically crying my eyes out about Kirby (so, I'm an old softy, I admit it), and they call me back in to look at the scan results. The radiologist, a woman whose name I never got, immediately was showing me how there was an area (not an insignificant one) that seemed to indicate swelling in the brain... (not good) and what appeared to be a pocket of fluid (unknown, also not great). In other words, something was in there... something that certainly could explain headache symptoms, among other things. She recommended I have an MRI, so they could really get a good picture of what this "feature" was.
NOW.
The suddenness surprised me, but that didn't sound unreasonable. I just didn't want to wait around in the clinic all morning, so I asked if I could take a break, get a few things done, then come back in the afternoon. They took a peek at their schedule, and were thankfully able to fit me in in the middle of the afternoon. I called my wife to give her the intermediate news, then headed to the office (to clear my head, as much as for any other reason).
Something is going on, something probably serious. Thank goodness that the worst I have to show for it (so far, knock on wood) are some manageable headaches.
(Notes from 3/7/06)
The weekend passed, Monday flew by (with a few odd looks from my coworkers as I explained that I would certainly be out the following morning to have my head examined), and I headed down to the clinic for my head CT. For a variety of reasons, I went by myself -- particularly since I had every intention of having the pictures taken, then trundle right off to work.
I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but my frame of mind wasn't really on my headaches (though I had a nice one going in). I recognize that I'm just a transplanted Minnesotan, but I've always been a baseball fan, and the passing of Kirby Puckett was hitting me harder than I expected. I'm sure that the imaging technicians thought I was fearing "the worst" as I would walk back to the machines, tears in my eyes -- when really I just couldn't stop reading the Kirby Puckett testimonials in the newspaper in the waiting area. I was stupidly embarrassed by that!
The CT scan wasn't bad at all. Like being stuck inside a spinning donut up to my shoulders. At least I could fold my hands across my stomach and mostly relax. Only took something like fifteen or twenty minutes, then they asked me to wait so that the radiologist could take a peek at it. I didn't know what to expect, but by this point, I was starting to come around to the idea that I sort of wanted to find some reason for these headaches (and I started longing for the Alleve that I knew was in my car). I know, makes no sense that now I wanted to find something, but what are you going to do?
So, I'm back in the waiting area, practically crying my eyes out about Kirby (so, I'm an old softy, I admit it), and they call me back in to look at the scan results. The radiologist, a woman whose name I never got, immediately was showing me how there was an area (not an insignificant one) that seemed to indicate swelling in the brain... (not good) and what appeared to be a pocket of fluid (unknown, also not great). In other words, something was in there... something that certainly could explain headache symptoms, among other things. She recommended I have an MRI, so they could really get a good picture of what this "feature" was.
NOW.
The suddenness surprised me, but that didn't sound unreasonable. I just didn't want to wait around in the clinic all morning, so I asked if I could take a break, get a few things done, then come back in the afternoon. They took a peek at their schedule, and were thankfully able to fit me in in the middle of the afternoon. I called my wife to give her the intermediate news, then headed to the office (to clear my head, as much as for any other reason).
Something is going on, something probably serious. Thank goodness that the worst I have to show for it (so far, knock on wood) are some manageable headaches.
# posted by JamesP3325 @ 6:03 AM 
