What I thought was going to happen was, I sign in, I fill out a form, I change into a gown, I spend 15-20 minutes in a loud tube, I change back and go home, in and out in one hour tops. What I got was multiple forms, news I should have fasted from 5pm the day before, a need to drink 1.5 litres of sorbitol to inflate my small intestine, an IV for bowel sedation meds, one of which I was ineligible for due to my acute angle glaucoma, and a three hour stay at the hospital, plus some injected dye. I still had to change into a gown/pants combo and put my belongings in a locker. So not awful, but a bigger commitment than I was aware of. My Gastroenterologist told me “You need an MRI. I’ll put in the requisition and the hospital will take care of the rest.” And that was it. No further details provided. I’ve had an MRI before, so I figured this would be much the same. The hospital called to tell me of my appointment only 7 days before it was scheduled, via automated voice message. No details about fasting, length of time, IV drugs etc etc… it didn’t even provide me with an option to speak to a human to ask relevant questions. I walk in there and BAM! My busy day is about to get much more complicate.
The people were lovely, and it was all free, and I only ended up waiting roughly six months for it. I’m not in life threatening condition so it wasn’t a high priority. It was clean, and all the nurses were masked. It’s a building full of high powered magnets, so only the blue surgical masks, but still better than nothing I suppose. I wore my N95 for as long as I was able. Drinking three 500ml drinks was a challenge in a mask. Hopefully I haven’t brought anything home with me. We’ll see.
Trying to drink 1.5L of watered down sorbitol under a timer was no fun. Better than the colonoscopy prep, but that much fluid on an empty stomach makes me feel all slushy, burpy, and nauseated. Trying to burp water while reclined on a gurney makes me gag a bit. Nearly threw up. Oops! Managed not to though. Go me!
That was a good chunk of my Thursday mid day. The forms do warn you that the bowel sedation meds mixed with the sorbitol can have a nasty effect on you afterwards. So I spent much of the late afternoon and the evening dealing with the fall out of that mixture. Whoosh! Right through you. Unpleasant. Ha.
But, here we are on the morning of another beautiful Friday. The sun is out, I can see some blue in the sky. I finished all of my shoveling for last nights snowfall. It looks like February in Southern Ontario once more. Temperatures are more seasonal as we are back below zero again. We can toboggan if we want to. I now think once more about buying myself cross country skiis. The forecast calls for a few more days of snow. This is also a holiday weekend, with Family Day on Monday to look forward to. Sadly next week are both the visitation and funeral for my wife’s uncle Frederick Pike. Died at age 65, after a brief battle with multiple cancers. Very aggressive. Spread too far & too wide, much too quickly to be combated in any current method that is available. So next Friday will be a somber day to remember the man.
I have paid work to do, so I best be about my business. Ciao Bella!
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