I'm getting a restart on this blog - at my significant other's suggestion. I'll start with my Tuesday, 8/25/09, personal journal entry. It shows my current mood:
I awoke, Tuesday, at 0600 in order to have time to have a small breakfast before my CT scan at SLUH. Of course I had to first feed the cats – a chicken and beef mixture that is not their favorite. They don’t like beef, but love chicken. As for me, I made a three egg omelet using Eggbeaters and a slice of toast with margarine and raspberry jam. By 0630 I was back in bed.
I awoke again at 0900 when Sue got out of bed. I got up and "piddled" around for a little while. I feel extremely tired today. On the scale I weighed in at 215 pounds! Zounds! That’s up a bunch (3 pounds overnight), so I hope that it is just an anomaly.
I was sitting at my desk in my home office when I realized that I feel extremely tired. Maybe it is from yesterday’s EGD procedure, but all I could do was sit quietly and feel that I wished the day had already ended and I could go back to bed. A real wave of lethargy washed over me and I can’t really explain the feeling otherwise.
Around 1030 Sue and I left for St. Louis with me driving. I had driven for about an hour when I realized that I was on the verge of "clicking out" the way I sometimes can when I’m really tired. So I pulled over in New Baden and asked Sue to drive the rest of the way, which she did, with my help as navigator.
We got to SLUH (St. Louis University Hospital) just before 1230, as per my instructions. I checked in and pretty soon one of the workers gave me an apple flavored "smoothie" of Barium Sulfate to drink. Around 1300, one of the CT people came out and asked if I had had a blood test recently, since he needed some of that data. I gave him the telephone number for St. Mary’s in Centralia, but it took him about half a hour to get through to the lab at St. Mary’s. It then developed that my creatinine was 1.6, while the reference range topped out at 1.25, so they didn’t think that they would be able to give me the contrast dye IV needed for the test.
After some hemming and hawing, it was decided to give me another blood test to see if the results would be different. It took about an hour all together, but the new results for me came in at 1.24, just low enough. So we then proceeded to the CT room, where William, my tester, attempted to give me an IV for the contrast dye. He went for my right arm and drew two dry holes. All he managed to do is give me a good bruise on my right hand. His assistant came out and use the inner part of the left arm and made a painful, but good, connection. That piercing left no bruise, so go figure. In about 15 minutes it was all over and I was allowed to leave.
William led me back out to the waiting area where Sue was. He walked at a fast pace and I kept up with him most of the distance, but I began to have a piercing headache and my throat felt constricted as if I was having either a heart attack or reflux. I didn’t say anything to him, but as Sue and I left I told her how I felt and asked her to stop and pause for a bit. I stood still for a moment or two, then walked slowly to the car.
We then drove to Fairview Heights, Illinois where we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I did enjoy the meal, even though I overate. Then we headed home. I pretty much rested for the remainder of the day. Getting old actually sucks!
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