Chapter 44: Second PET Scan

*NOTE*:  this is not me specifically, but more or less a representation of me trying to get through this cancer garbage while in a pandemic.

Hey all,

So as I mentioned in the past post, I am very much in the "thick of it now" at this point in the story, clearly.

FML. 🤦🏻‍♀️

As you can imagine, my head is in any given place other than where it should be at this point. If im completely honest, as tough as it was to work throughout the pandemic, it was truly a blessing at the same time. Mind you, I could say the same thing about working during this whole cancer situation. I know most people might not continue to work during  a "cancer situation" like this. However, for me, I am certainly not like most people, and I in fact welcomed it. As a self proclaimed "workaholic" it really was the best thing for me to basically submerge, dare I say drown, myself in my work head first.  Well now that I think about it, what might that even look like anyway?  of corse we all know what that means to drown yourself in work. If you really think about it tho, its such a weird thing to say. If we think of it literally, I just imagine myself in someone's back yard on a bright sunny and cloud free day, with a giant pool flanked by a tiki bar and makeshift plastic palm trees that hold ice and (enter your favourite cold beverage here).  Oh and of corse lets not forget the XL size unicorn and ice cream floaty things beside the towel covered chaise lounges surrounding the pool deck.  Next thing you know, you do a running cannon ball jump off the diving board into the pool water which is conveniently changed into thousands if not millions of paper documents. Good lort, the paper cuts, omg the paper cuts! *shudder*.

All in all though, I know I don't normally talk about work, but It's been a huge blessing to be able to work for such an understanding organization, especially in a situation like this.

So, next up in the line of stuff I had to do, wait let me think......oh yeah a 2nd PET scan. Luckily for me, despite the PET scan area being on the same floor, it was in a different area from the other MRI's and CT's i've done. Not gonna lie I still worry about running into that MRI guy again.🤦 Not today satan, not today.

As my natural standard has been thus far, I arrived at the hospital early for my appointment. Simply to ensure I was not going to be late. Seeing as I was one of the first scans in the morning. Just as I thought I was about to get ahead of the game by getting there early...well it obviously didn't seem to pan out in my favour as usual. But sit back and enjoy the show, this is a good one.

On the positive side of things, having been around the block already with the PET scan test I had an idea of what to expect. Luckily I wasn't as nervous as the first time. I arrived and checked in at the reception desk, it was still fairly early in the morning so it was only myself and another man in the waiting room. Slowly and surely the waiting room became more and more crowded, and as the time ticked on, before I knew it an hour and a half had passed and no-one had called my name to go in for my test. Yes I know I arrived early but dang, I wasn't that early that I would have needed to wait that long.

Slowly I started to hear grumblings from those waiting around me about what was taking so long. In fact I started to wonder the same thing to myself. All of a sudden a woman flew out from the back into the main waiting room as if she was about to do some epic magic trick in a Vegas residency. It honestly felt like she was auditioning to be an opening act for Chris Angel Mindfreak. She then proceeded to announce to the room that the dye they needed to conduct the PET scans with has not arrived yet, they had to get it from another hospital, but should be there soon. Well that definitely sucks for sure, seeing as its not like I had any other plans that day. *sense sarcastic tone here* She then said that she would call us in when it arrived, but until then to please be patient. As we all know by now,  not really one of my strong points being patient in a setting like this. Bu what can ya do....when you live in a shoe? especially when picking up your loot and moving to a boot isn't always an option y'know.....

Before I knew it, ANOTHER 40 mins had passed, and there I was sitting and STILL waiting for this woman to come out and do something exciting. Like c'mon if your not gonna tell me that the dye has arrived, then at least do something to make my wait time worth while. Like what you ask? well let's explore that. If she's not willing to pull a cute bunny out of a hat for me to play with, then maybe saw the guy in half who is sitting 10 chairs away from me blaring his kung fu movie  as loud as humanly possible on his iPhone with no headphones. Just a small thought. There a few things in my life that absolutely brings me to my knees in frustration, irritation, and anger. Playing music/video, more often then not containing racial slurs or copious amounts of profanity in a small public space as loud as you possibly can with no headphones is pretty darn close to the top of that list. By the way, why does that always seem to happen on public transit or at bus stops?! I don't get it...... What else is on that list you ask? at a very close second place is how often McDonalds ice Cream machines are ALWAYS broken! like C'mon Ronald McDonald get it together!

Finally the woman came out and said that she got an update on the dye and that it was coming all the way from Montreal, as that was the only place they could find it. She then proceeded to apologize and that if anyone wanted or needed to leave they could and would be scheduled for another day. Funny enough she looked at me and the other guy who were supposed to be first scanned that morning. Listen, Ive already waited almost like 2.5-3 hours for this freaking dye to arrive. I brought myself all the way down here and are paying a ridiculous amount for parking, I am NOT doing this again if I don't have to. You bet your rosy red rectum im waiting for that dye to arrive. Forreal tho, even Rihanna is not THAAAAT late for an event, despite being known for always making a "fashionably late entrance"....so i've read.

Just when I thought this circus of a day couldn't get any better, it did. Oh it definitely did.

Next thing I knew, a man walked up to the reception desk to check in. Luckily for me I was right by the desk and I was able to hear some of the conversation. Not on purpose of corse! I'm not "that guy" but I did happen to hear what his name was Semen.....oh yes I said/spelled it correctly. How do I know? well even the receptionist was confused and asked him to spell it. S.E.M.E.N, incase if you are wondering how he pronounced it, "See-men". Well I do have to give the man credit, he seemed to have a good sense of humour. Which i'm sure you must need to with a name like that, but I digress. He then proceeded to tell the receptionist he wasn't there for a PET scan, he was there to have a colonoscopy. Certainly floored me for sure, and I swear i'm not a 5 year old when I say, the rest of the time I was there I often found myself giggling while thinking to myself "they are butt checking semen". HEY! don't judge me! if you had been sitting there for going on 3 hours and hadn't eaten since the night before because of fasting you'd probably be right there beside me giving me those side glances right before we burst out in uncontrollable laughter.

Finally, after what seemed to be, the excitement equivalent of the never ending battle of who could last the longest without blinking while counting the floor tiles. The staff came out one last time and called me back to be prepped. "the dye isn't here yet still but to get things moving a bit better, We are gonna prep your IV and then have you wait back here until the dye comes"......cool I thought to myself. 

Lucky for me, about 15-20 mins after they put in my IV the dye showed up. WHOO HOO! thank Lort! They injected me with the dye and off I went to wait another hour to have the dye get fully in my system. Oh how sweet you are to think the waiting game would have been over for me at this point.🤦 

Of corse while I was in the "second waiting room" the man in the chair beside me, behind the curtain, had not only fallen asleep, but decided to make it known to the whole hospital wing that he was clearly comfortable and fast asleep. Im sure you're wondering how I know this, well given the extreme decibel level he was snoring at, i'm surprised the hospital didn't implode on itself. Shout out to the construction crew for doing a great job when they built the hospital! LOL

Finally my time arrived, and I was able to do my test. After all that I was in and out in about 10 minutes, I swear it took them longer to find my peek a boo veins to insert the IV than to actually get the test done.

At this point, I was just happy to have it over with and able to go back home. Mind you, unfortunately my anxiety had far from gone away. Seeing as the next step, Im fairly certain was to wait and hear about the results from Dr. J.

To be continued...

See you all next Monday.