MR Myocardial perfusion scan on Wednesday 24th.... the staff and the hospital were as nice as could be but oh, it was an awful experience....

Got there early to find it was all closed so had a panic thinking I was at the wrong place... Anyway.. was taken in and up to the scanner, made to undress (and even going private I STILL get the gown with only one tie), then had canulars put in so they could inject various drugs and stuff. Of course, they couldn't find a vein in my arm so I had them in both hands. That's me immobilised. Why do they do that and THEN ask you to sign the forms?

So.. taken to the scanner, strapped down to the table (I know, people pay good money for treatment like that) and sent into the scanner with the headphones on (bring your own CD, I chose Schiedt) and spent best part of an hour alternately holding my breath and deep breathing whilst the gubbins took pictures. That bit wasn't too bad apart from the claustraphobic effect of the tunnel, but worse was to come. I got injected with a drug to simulate running around the park. Now, apparently one in 250 people have a strange reaction to this drug... Guess who that one is. It was awful, like someone was sitting on my chest and being unable to breathe, legs like lead and sharp pains.

Still, I bravely struggled on for the 3 hours (in reality less than 5 minutes) it took and then the dye went in. That was disconcerting as it was very cold and I could feel it circulating! So... they took more pictures, I had to hold my breath a lot, then they let me out. It took a while before I was apparently pink enough to be allowed to sit up, and there were some strange effects. Took even longer (about an hour, a pint of water, a bacon butty, 2 hot chocolates and a bag of crisps) before I could face the journey home. So there we go. I took the slow way home on the bus, because it's easier to get off and throw up than on the Underground... I got home after a 3 hour journey (it usually takes 1 by train, 2 by bus) where I fell asleep on the cat. A picture was taken of me asleep on the cat, and I'm stunned by how grey I still looked. No wonder they wouldn't let me go until I was pink. If that was pink, what the hell was I like before?!

Anyway, after 48 hrs I'm much improved but still dog tired. They gave me a CD of the scan, and if you play it on the computer, with music in the background, you can make my ventricles "sing" along by scrolling quickly between frames!

I have to call for an appointment for the results, nothing has been said about any possible causes for my problems (other than stress, surprise surprise), so I look forward to finding out what they found.

So... more chocolate please nurse, and let me sleep a bit longer.

LTS