The Scans

This is how the events of the day went per time.

March 17 have bladder catheter installed at 4 p.m.

March 18 2:45 a.m. I wake up. Snooze off and on until 4 a.m.

4 a.m. alarm goes off & Andrew gets up.

5:45 a.m. Get into electric wheelchair and head to the van.

5:47 a.m. Van driver wants me to back up onto the lift. It's dark. I can't see. I pull in frontwards which means Andrew has to come in the van and put my feet down so I can turn around and face forwards.

5:49 a.a. Andrew comes into the back of the van and while doing so hits his head hard on the top of the door. It nocks him over. The van driver was standing right there and could have told him to watch his head when entering but didn'. Andrew picks himself up after a few minutes and helps me to put my feet down. I turn to face the windshield and the feet go back up. Meanwhile I'm worried about Andrew's head because it left a bump, gash, goose egg and bruise. I keep asking him if his vision went off. He continues to say he's fine.

6 a.m. The driver tethers my chair in.

6:05 a.m. we are off.

6:10 a.m. While driving down the road it becomes apparent that the driver of this medivan was not versed on country roads, or curves, or the speed at which to drive as a whole. It also became apparent later that she wasn't experienced with wind or driving a disabled person somewhere or off ramps or...need I go on? This driver needed a lot more training.

6:30 a.m. So at the stop sign to turn right to go into town she takes a sharp and fast right. This caused the right side of my wheelchair to take flight and come off of the ground. It landed again as the van straightened out after the turn and I leaned to the right to set the wheel back down. That should have never happened for two reasons that doesn't take a genius to figure out... 1. she should have not turned so sharp or so speedily. 2. She should have tethered my wheelchair to the floor a lot tighter. Isn't that what those floor ties are for? If I were anyone else in that wheelchair that probably would have broken my neck.

7:30 a.m. I puke in the van. Most of it goes down the front. Some of it ends up on the van. Mmm french fries. We stop on the side of the road, clean me up, and are on the way again.

7:40 a.m. The fun starts. I don't know what turn off it was but the driver decides to take it at last minute and ends up hugging the cans between the highway and the off ramp. I can't believe she didn't get us killed. Then off the wrong off ramp we go to down town/city. So her navi is confused, she's driving downtown, and Andrew is beside himself. I piped up and gave directions. She says "I know". Apparently she doesn't from what she's doing. Oh and she says this is the second time being in that particular city and has never been to the particular hospital where we are going. What? No wonder why the company only pays minimum wage to it's drivers. They suck! So the she finds her way to the freeway.

8:00 a.m. We arrive at the hospital 15 minutes late.

8:15 a.m. I have barf juice all over my front. Andrew and I go to a dressing room where I put on two hospital gowns and clean up a little more.

8:20 a.m. Andrew fills out paperwork at the reception desk and then we wait.

8:40 a.m. We are sent to a waiting room (I sit in my elect. chair in the hall--more air/ventilation there).

8:45 a.m. 3 nice gentlemen come to me with a Hoyer lift. Thank God I won't have to try to transfer. I had never used one before, so it was a little different and a bit scary, but they knew what they were doing. They put me on the gurney. The Ativan that I took earlier was starting to kick in. Lying on my back wasn't so bad as long as my calves and ankles were elevated which they did.

9:40 a.m. I believe was the actual time I went in the tube. It was uneventful. I slept on and off.

10:40 a.m. Done with the MRI tube, back on the hoyer lift, and back on the trusty old wheelchair again. It seems Andrew was still okay. That was a hard hit he took on the head. How about some warning driver!

11:00 a.m. To the vascular center and beyond--no just the vascular center. They had our info. We waited a few minutes until someone came out and told us that both the neuroradiologist durgeon and the leg doctor had a meeting until one, but she was going to try to locate the neuroradiologist.

11:10 a.m. We were put into a nice and big room and shortly the neuroradiologist came by to chat with us a bit before his meeting. He explained what he saw on the MRV and said I had a narrow right side vein with a large left side vein that had spider veins. He explained why he wanted to do angio and not stenting. I don't remember if he said he wanted to do both sides at once. I'll get back to ya on that.

11:20 a.m. so off to the meeting both doctors went. And now we wait until 1 p.m.

During this time, Andrew ate a snack and I wouldn't eat anything because I was afraid to lose it. A nurse came in and talked about compression hose, but then gave up.

1:00 p.m. Both docs return. The leg doc tries to close curtains to give me privacy. The scan starts on the legs. The leg doctor intermittently squeezes the calves during the sonogram scan. His verdict is that the muscles in my legs are not making the valves retun the blood. He suggests doing leg exercises and using a bicycle, which I will do when I feel better. Right now pointing and retracting the toes is about as good as it gets.

1:15 p.m. The neuroradiologist/surgeon comes in and watches the scans of the neck. His verdict is narrowing of the right side and spider veins on the left.

1:30 p.m. Neuroradiologist says a rimeframe for procedure, we talk a little more. At this point I am so tired I can't remember much more.

3:00 p.m. leave for home. It's windy and the driver swerves and ends up in oncoming traffic. I'm really too tired to notice.

5:00 pm home at last.