I have to laugh at Google some times. Nearly two weeks after getting one in the ER, I was reading all the lists of questions people supposedly ask about CT scans and Google's answers to them. After a bit they keep repeating, especially the questions which ask why something happens a certain way when, in fact, it doesn't. Like "Why can't I drive after?" is answered by "You can drive home afterwards." Every time. Hey, you can wear deodorant too. This isn't a mammogram. It doesn't care what your insides smell like. If you have the choice, be kind to the staff though, and use it. (That last is me, not Google.)
I came into the ER with severe pain under my bottom right ribcage. I'd had no accident or any kind of impact injury. My gallbladder was gone 37 years before. The only thing I could come up within my limited experience was the fact that I have a herniated diaphragm on that side. It got diagnosed after a camping trip in the mountains where suddenly breathing became an issue, or at least getting the feeling of not having enough O2 from the process, emphasized by light-headedness. It hadn't been painful at all, unless one counts the disappointment of having to leave days before seeing the full eclipse of the sun we'd traveled to see after several years of planning.
The pulmologist I saw when we got back home diagnosed it for me, and when I asked if that meant needing surgery, he informed me they don't operate on that. It doesn't heal by itself either. And I no longer tolerate high altitudes like Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park like I had before. Anyway, with no future issues from it, and his input, I presume I still have it. My resulting thought as I entered the ER was my pain came from something trying to push its way through the hole and into my lung.
Pretty sure it wasn't one of Sigourney Weaver's aliens.
A few other things I'd told the folks in the ER led them in a different direction, but just to be sure, they ordered a CT scan, or Cat Scan. With dye. Did I agree?
My only comment was to clarify it wasn't an MRI. I can't have one of those, now that I wear a pacemaker. I'd had one MRI a dozen years before, after being rear-ended by a school bus, long before any cardiac issues. It cleared my resulting neck pain as a mere sprain. Having no other reason to object, I OKed it.
It didn't take them long to get me prepped for it, as I was already in a hospital gown and hooked up to my first IV line, with multiple fluids being piped into me for some time already. Blood draws for other lab tests had hinted at the problem, but they wanted something more definitive.
A very helpful lady rolled me down the hall on my gurney. My first issue was my shoulders. I explained to her they weren't just painful from arthritis, but when my arms were raised over my head these last couple years, they tended to self-dislocate. It does tend to settle a lot of issues in the "do I have to do that?" category. She was already familiar with patients with reasons not to raise their arms, despite it being standard procedure during the test. She had me do a trial run in the machine to see if my arms would clear the inside of the "donut" and still be enough apart from my sides.
They were. The organs needing inspection were clearly visible.
She explained what else I could expect. One of the things I now found out that Google disagrees with, which I find mildly humorous. Google says I have to remove jewelry and metals.While she did take my glasses, my wedding ring and medic-alert bracelet stayed on. I suspect that was part of the could-my-arms-stay-down test, if Google is correct about removing metals. Besides I have both a pacemaker and a Watchman inside my chest on the other side, so if their metals mess up the imaging, good effing luck! They're not coming out!
There would be short times where I would have to inhale and hold my breath, while lying very still. She said it would be about 13 seconds. In my estimation it lasted about 5 seconds, both times. The first was the practice run, both to see if my arms were in the way, and to see if I was lined up exactly for the part of me they wanted to see.
I was told I'd likely feel some tingling and smell/taste a metallic sensation in my mouth. Maybe others can smell/taste it, but my version of long covid precluded that. The tingling I felt was very gentle, limited to finger tips and toes, over in a few seconds.
The last thing I should expect got a more lengthy explanation. During the time I was being scanned with the dye in me, I would feel like I was actually peeing on the bed I was being moved on, but I wouldn't actually be peeing (especially if pre-warned.) She informed me she'd had this scan when she was a very young teenager. Nobody had warned her so she believed the feeling was real. As she exited the machine she was very upset, totally mortified. The staff had to spend some time trying to reassure her, so now she is sure to tell people before the procedure, especially with children.
I had no problem with feeling trapped inside the donut, spending my few seconds each time looking at the lights spinning so fast around me that they turned into lines about two inches long chasing each other. Hmm, mildly interesting, no biggie, it just started, then quickly stopped before I could see more.
Oh well.
The results were back shortly, confirming several things. First, my gall bladder was indeed missing, as I'd said. (Uhhh, do people lie about that?) Gall stones were not the culprit. No mention was made of the herniated diaphragm, and I forgot to ask if it (still) showed. I was hearing that the scan confirmed what the lab tests showed. I had an inflamed pancreas. I was being admitted.
The liver wasn't mentioned at that time, though subsequent labs showed its enzymes were out of whack even as the pancreas was starting to settle down. I would get no food at all for a while so the pancreas could get a rest. If not rested, it had a tendency to start attacking it own self. Yikes!
I'd been quizzed several times on the usual suspects for cause. I get that some patients try to hide the stereotypical cause, which is heavy alcohol use. However often they asked, it still had been over 40 years since my last drink. I'm one of those oddballs who simple doesn't like the taste of the stuff, and where taste is concerned, I'm quite the hedonist. After having tried it several times in several mixes over the years previously, and never liking it nor seeing the point to it, it wasn't like stopping because of AA either. Find another cause, folks.
I was going to be there for a while.
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