Big Day in Medicine

CT Scans AND Nephrology today. Long afternoon.

We've learned, now, that we don't need or even want to schedule two appointments on the same day, because what's the point? We live close to the hospital and it's not that difficult to just show up on two different days.

So the CT procedure at this hospital is, they have patients stop eating 3 hours before. The patient arrives two hours before. Then the patient has to drink the contrast. They mix it in a drink and divide it up into three cups. The patient is in a room doing nothing but drinking this stuff. If The Boy were an older child, he'd just drink the cup at the designated time and spend the other 29 minutes of each half-hour doing whatever he felt like, but naturally, it was a bit of a production and he didn't drink all of it. He did okay, drinking more than half, but it took a bit longer than we thought because the people over in radiology were debating how much was really enough...

It's not too much fun.

But the nice thing is, he doesn't need to go without food or drink for any real length of time because they don't sedate him.

The CT was VERY easy, particularly since I brought Toy Story (knowing that they have a DVD player and a TV above the CT). This is his current favorite film. The Boy didn't even complain, because all he had to do was lie there and watch his movie while the machine moved him in and out a few times.

And when he was done, he got a pirate hat.

THEN up to nephrology. Blood pressure is good. He's having the dose of his Enalapril dropped, so we'll only give it in the morning. He also might not need the Bicarb anymore. Tricky thing about the Enalapril is that while it does protect the kidney in some ways, it also can skew the creatinine level, which was measuring high today. His last blood chemistry showed normal levels of electrolytes, including potassium.

He needed a blood draw in the lab, which I figured, so I had them leave the port accessed from the scan. But then, we had to go to the lab, which was in a different location. Only to find out that the people in the lab do not do blood draws from ports. They have to call the IV team.

Really? Are you serious? Never mind that I could easily do it MYSELF if I had the proper equipment in my hands.

The good news is that during the wait for the IV team (which never showed up), The Boy did produce the urine sample. In the bag.

The bad news is that since I was sick of waiting for the IV team, he had to get his blood drawn from his arm after all. But I should have known better--that's what they do all day, so they don't really have trouble with it.

We get results from both the CT scan and from the lab tomorrow. I'm trying not to think about it too much.

Two successful potty visits today! The first was, The Boy woke up at 6 AM and he wanted a new diaper. I convinced him to go to the potty, and although there was a little bit of poo in it, a LOT more went into the toilet. I'm pleased that it wasn't in either a diaper or even in his little potty, because cleanup would have been a major pain. The other was a pee right before his bath. Unfortunately, I could not get him to pee in a cup today. Maybe next time.

Tomorrow might be nice out, after some rain in the morning. Maybe we'll do some fun stuff to keep our minds off of scanxiety.