*yawn* *blink blink*

[kyra_ojosverdes]

Today was my full-body scan. Confession: without the kids, the apartment is too quiet and empty. Now that I'm back on my thyroid meds, the ol' anxiety has returned. When darkness falls, the too-empty apartment gets a little creepy. I suppose reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy hasn't helped much with the irrational "what if something is under the bed" fears. I've fallen into the habit of reading until dawn, then descending into a peaceful sunlit slumber, serenaded by morning birdsong. That wasn't really an option last night. I went to bed at about 2:00 am. I lay awake for several hours.

The alarm went off at 7:30 am. I hit snooze a couple times, before realizing that if I didn't haul my ass out of bed, I'd miss my 9:00 appointment. Ass-hauling commenced. I pulled on my "fat pants" (you know, the ones that test the limits of staying on your hips). They're tight. Hell. I arrived in the parking garage at 8:45, where it appeared a Celebration of Bad Parking was beginning. Now here's an issue to unite the Right and Left. Bad Parking.

Left: Parking lines are a tool of the patriarchy! It's The Man, trying to keep you down! Assert your right to park any damn way you please! It's self-expression and is protected under the First Amendment!

Right: If we stay within the lines and take up only one parking space, they'll start enforcing quotas!! We must fight the menace of Affirmative Action and maintain our white/male/middle class standing by parking our big-ass vehicles in such a manner that the poor, female, and minority drivers can't find a parking spot! We pay more taxes, anyway.

I got lost again on the way to Nuclear Medicine, but found my way and got to talk to some nice nurses so that's all good. While waiting my turn, I browsed an art magazine. I didn't think I could bear the excitement of Golf Digest (the only other magazine there) on so little sleep. A nurse came to get one of the other waiting patients, a good-natured elderly man in a wheelchair. The man's daughter and granddaughter were with him. They smiled at me. I blearily smiled back. The nurse approached the man from behind and spoke, but the man didn't respond. The daughter said, "He can't hear you." They had a brief exchange, the daughter repeating and amplifying everything the nurse said, until the nurse caught on and started speaking MUCH louder, and into the old man's good ear. The nurse asked, did the father have any allergies? The daughter echoed this to her father. He repeated, "Do I have any allergies?" He thought for a moment, then grinned and said "Heh. Doctors!" Everyone in the waiting area laughed. When I'm 90, I want to be like that.

Finally, a nurse came to get me. I got to climb onto a narrow table (oooooh, woozy, make the room stop spinning) and lay still for about 45 minutes while the table slowly moved under, then over, the 'picture-taker' plate. Nifty machine. It took images from the radiation emitted by my body (from the radioactive iodine). The part where the plate approached my face then parked over it for half an eternity kinda sucked. I kept my eyes closed for most of it, hoping I'd fall back asleep. No such luck. Instead, I practiced the old "breathe deeply and slowly into your abdomen, and remind yourself that the picture-taker plate cannot possibly suffocate you, as there is PLENTY of air-flow all around you" routine. I'm weird about having stuff near my face. After the plate passed over, then under, my body, we got to do a close-up of my neck. That was keen. Yup, another 15 minutes with the plate hovering inches from my face. More slow, deep abdominal breathing. Then it was time to get up and make the room stop spinning again.

Once the room stabilized, I went back to the waiting room while they developed the films and made sure that they'd gotten good pictures. The daughter and granddaughter were still there. There was a child sitting near them, so I sat in the back corner of the waiting area. The Mormon Tabernacle choir came on TV. The daughter quietly made snarky comments into her mother's ear. The mother laughed. I liked them even better. I'm such a freaking bigot. The nurse guy came out and said my films were fine and I could go. I found my way back to the parking garage. Bad Parking Day festivities were in full swing. Now I'm home. I'm taking off the too-tight fat pants, and I'm going back to bed. I'll see my endocrinologist sometime next week to get the results of the scan.

Comments

I know how you feel

[bluemanxcat.livejournal.com]

hey, katrina.

sorry that you have to go through all this. i can imagine that it's not very fun.

in a way, i sort of feel like we're going through the same stuff right now. both of our lives have been put on hold from outside events. i just hope we can get on with our lives relatively soon.

[canyonwren.livejournal.com]

"Big-ass vehicles" reminded me of my brother's idle fantasy of being the "SUV Avenger," who would, in the dark of night, stuff bananas up the tailpipes of all the street-hogging monstrosities.

[kyra-ojosverdes.livejournal.com]

I like it!!

I made a post just for you. ;-)

Re:

[canyonwren.livejournal.com]

Hah! CMPNS8TR!!! I love it!

Hugs

[medusadawn.livejournal.com]

healing energy being sent