So I just got back from my MUGA Scan to see if my heart is pumping blood properly and can handle the chemo. Since I need it right away - there was a STAT order placed for it - I had to go to the Anaheim location instead of my favorite Irvine one. So that was the first unknown - I've never been there. Then after check in and a 30 min or so wait I am told to walk down the hall to a door called Nuclear Medicine. But this was on the door. Joy.
So I go in and there are several machines clicking, the room is dimly lit, and cold. A Nurse (?) came over and told me to have a seat in a chair like you have your blood taken in. She asks me if this is my first MUGA Scan and then gives me a surprised look when I tell her yes. She kindof explained a little of what was going on but I was still confused and scared. Did I mention I was scared? I was. Then she starts an IV and tells me it has to go for 15 minutes. so I wait, in the meantime they take someone out of one of the machines, and hook up another person (this one was an old guy that was sitting in a wheelchair), think about my situation, think about what is to come, and overall just be scared. The whole time my fingers on the arm with the IV were getting cold. It was cold in there and I had to remove my arm from my jacket so she could set up the IV.
Then she said she was going to inject me with the radioactive material. She does that, removes the IV and tells me to go to a machine around the corner from where I was sitting, but still in the same smallish room. I go around the corner and there is this machine shoved in a corner that is also used for storage. I put my things on a chair, again in another area that is used for storage. I then lie(lay? sorry grammar police I didn't pay attention in English class) on the bed of the machine, she adds stickers to my chest and tells me to lie still for about 10 minutes. She and another nurse in there start talking and she adds another sticker to my side. I think the electrodes(?) weren't working properly, but they eventually got it to work and started the test. I tried relaxing (yeah right who was I kidding), not thinking about anything. I could see a screen that was showing up a bunch of dots and tried looking at that for awhile, but it wasn't much fun to look at since I didn't know what I was looking at. I tried closing my eyes and not thinking, again not working. All I managed to do was think about how scared and nervous I was.
Then after what feels like an hour, but I'm sure was only 10 min, they slid back the bed and told me I could remove the stickers, and that I was free to go. I snapped the photo above as I left in a fog. I drove home and while I obeyed all traffic rules I was actually driving the speed limit and didn't mind being behind a slowpoke as my mind was still racing and I was still thinking too much. I am normally in a rush to get where I am going so this was a departure for me, but made me think that the next time I am behind a slowpoke I will be more tolerant. They may have just came back from their first injection of radioactive material, or chemo, or who knows.
But in the meantime I decided I will call myself Radioactive Girl . . . and I have a feeling it will not be the last time I am radioactive . . . I guess that is my superpower for the day ;-)
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