Wednesday, I wake to the sense that I am on a time table, its hospital day. I take my vitals that are good and get up. As I have time I get into my training gear and head for the garage and the rower. I strap in and get going on a half hour session. Part the way through I began to think “this is bloody hard work” and then I realise that the resistance level is up a notch and then it made sense why I found my trainers stored the wrong way round on the foot bars. It later turned out that my eldest daughter had been on my rower. I continued through the half hour and finished my first resistance Level 5 row for over ten months.

So having had a more energetic 30 minutes than I had bargained for I shower, take my meds and organise myself to go to the hospital. My drive here was smooth and I parked up with plenty of time. I consciously ambled to the nuclear medicine department and presented myself to reception. The first chore was to fill in a wellness questionnaire to make sure I was not breathing germs all over the department adn then I was invited to take a seat. Rummaging through my bag I got my book out and started to read Before We Forget Kindness, the book I have been keeping reserve in anticipation of long hospital waits.

Its not long before I get called in and introduced to a double act who check my name and date of birth and begin to explain what is going to happen to me. They stick contact patches all over my chest and ankles and wire me up. The woman of the team shoves a canula in my arms and as she does so the team explain that they are going to give me two lots of drugs. The first is a drug that simulates exercise so that they can see what my body does under strain and the second one is to irradiate me. So once they were happy that I understood the woman started to pump the exercise drug into me while the bloke monitored the machine and my blood pressure. They started to ask if I could feeling anything and to be honest I was getting nothing. The way they explained it was expecting distressed breathing, chest tightness, stomach cramps and light headedness. I got a bit of tightness in my stomach area and that was that. The whole thing could not have lasted more than three or four minutes at the most after which the woman said the radiation stuff was in me as well and that bloke said it was all looking good on his monitor. So they unwired me, lowered the couch and told me to walk to the door and back adn then sit on the chair while the woman removed the canula. It all went to plan.

I was then given my next instructions. Go to the café and eat and drink what ever I wanted, including caffeine products and to return at one o’clock to the scan waiting area where there were toilets for the irradiated. So off I went to the small café at the main entrance and bought tuna sandwiches, a diet coke and a Mars bar. I slipped in a bottle of water to be healthy but that ended up coming home with me. I ate adn read my book until it was time to return to the scan waiting area took advantage of the irradiation toilets. Very soon I was called into the imaging room.

I reclined quite upright with my arm elevated over the L shaped scanner. Once again I was wired up with some new contacts stuck to me. There were quite a lot of preliminary jiggling about with the camera to get the angles right adn even a brief practice shot to make sure everything was right and to calculate how long the scan would be. The operator popped out of the glass box in the corner of the room adn informed me that the scan in this position would be 8 minutes and that I was not to move, breathe deeply or wriggle. So off we went, me doing what I always do and promptly closed my eyes and relaxed and let the technology get on with its job. Eight minutes latter the operator cheerily popped out of the glass box and said all was good now for the second scan with my in a recumbent position. We go through the same rituals and I am given the same instruction, so I lay back and relaxed with my arm elevated and resting on top of the scanner. This one was going to be eight and a half minutes. I duly lay still and closed my eyes and let the experience wash over me. Next time the operator popped out of her glass box she came over to me and told me there was a line down the image which might have been caused by heavy breathing or something but I was going to have to do this scan again. I knew exactly what had happened. Give me eight and a half minutes to lay still with my eyes closed and I fall asleep, that’s why there was a line down the image. So this time it was an eye open time where I minutely examined the bland white ceiling tiles, vents and lights and even the I’m not quite sure if I made the while eight and a half minutes fully awake. However the scan was okay and I was released from the machine.

The operator explained that I was to wait in the scan waiting area while the images were checked by the doctor and that I should keep the stick on contacts in place just in case I needed another scan. It was not a long wait before the operator came out and said all was well and that she would take me to the reception where they would arrange a date for the comparison scan. I had read in the information that they sent that a comparison scan would be done at some point in the future suggesting it could be weeks, so imagine my surprise when the receptionist asks “can you do tomorrow at 2pm” Yes I can I reply and she prints off and appointment letter there and then. What’s more I can eat and drink whatever I like between now and four hours before the appointment.

I drive home to find an Amazon package for me. Its the bolts I order to mend the garden swing seat so i set to and make the the temporary fix. Finally I indulge in a chink of lemon drizzle cake and watch an episode of Star Trek; The New Generation while drafting the blog. My partner returns from visiting her mother and we start the journey into the evening. There will be football and the new David Mitchel comedy Ludwig before I get to my night meds and another early night before tomorrows repeat performance at the nuclear medicine and another chance to read more of my book. I shall delay for one day my return to my cancer pills so that tomorrows comparison scan is done with the same medications in me, so tomorrow is the day to relabel the blog and not today as I had intended.