Saviour Sandy
Friday 27 Nov 2015.
Still in a bit of mind turmoil and rang my breast nurse who is once again away this time sick and won’t be back until perhaps Monday. I wish they would employ two nurses so when ones away I could have some constant support.
Today was chest and abdomen scan day but at the hospital instead of a local radiography place. The hospital is quite proud of there new only nine months old CT scanner and like to mention it as state of the art.
I had to swallow sachets of iodine stuff in water the night before and at a couple of times during the day and again when I got there. Then a lovely nurse put a needle into the vein in my arm for some other sort of radiography dye to be administered during the CT scan.
Sandy was her name and she is the nicest person I have met so far in my breast cancer journey, she is wonderful! She took her time finding the best vein to use and said she only ever does the one try as she doesn’t like damaging veins for other tests at later dates. She has been nursing for many years and had retired but said she got bored and needed the mental stimulation of nursing again. She has been in various medical fields including oncology which was a fantastic bonus for me. She answered many of the silly questions I had about my treatment, operations, future operation and what this CT scan was going to say. She was a wealth of knowledge and put my mind at ease about a lot of things.
She took me in for the scan and the radiographer was lovely and kind as well. I had to raise both arms above my head for the test which slides the bed in and out of the CT rings. Its open both ends so no claustrophobia. The mastectomy arm was a bit stiff but she helped guide my arm above my head and not completely straight but good enough to proceed with the scan.
I don’t think I will ever get used to the dye they pump in while the scan is going on. My mouth tasted metal, my nose felt like it was breathing out fumes, the palms of my hands got warm and it felt like I had wet myself. I actually checked later to make sure I hadn’t!
Afterwards the Sandy nurse made my hubby and I a cuppa and we chatted for a while before she removed the needle from my vein. She is such a lovely lady. She said sometimes she works over in outpatients too so keep an eye out and say hello if we see her again.
Since we’d already driven half an hour in to town we decided to go shopping and got all the things hubby had forgotten last Tuesday when I was too upset to even get out of the car. Found some bargains shopping too so we went home happy for a change.
We checked the mail on the way home and I have a confirmation letter for my auxiliary clearance Monday week and surprise, an appointment to see my specialist next Tuesday so the questions I have left over from Sandy I will write down for my specialist. He had better be sitting down this time.
