Well now I finally understand why I hate citrus flavored drinks. Bleh!
Last week I managed to get an early appointment with the specialist I’ve been waiting to see about my tummy troubles. The appointment went very well! I was quite pleased with how seriously they were taking my situation. I left there with appointments to be made for a special abdominal Cat-Scan, and for an MRI.
Oh yes, I also had to have a ton of blood work done while I was at the hospital. Nice 4 inch bruise on my arm now. It’s black! Plus, as a special treat, I had to have my eyeballs xrayed. Yes you read that correctly. My eyeballs.
Why you ask? Well, I used to be a jeweller. No, not the kind that stands behind the spotless glass counter and sells you expensive jewels. Nope, I was the one who actually made those precious designs. I used to be a diamond cutter (among other things that I did when I was a jeweller). No, I didn’t cut diamonds – I used a diamond on a “Diamond Cutting Machine” to cut designs into gold rings, bracelets, bangles, well – just about anything that is considered jewelery. Whichever diamond I was using spun around at 35,000 rotations per minute. Gold flew everywhere.
Flecks of gold in my hair, on my clothes … embedded in my clothing to tell the truth, on my face and about once every three or four weeks a splinter of gold would find it’s way past my safety goggles and stick into my eyeball. Ow! I can still feel how much that hurt. I’d leave my office and stumble down the buildings stairs to the optometrist that happened to work a few floors down. The receptionist would just say “Again?” and put me in a room to have the good doctor remove the gold from my eye.
Now I really doubt that I still have any gold embedded in my eyeballs, but since I’m going to have an MRI at some undetermined date in the future I had to have my eyes xrayed to make sure. My eyes could explode or something during the test if I do have any metal in them. Interesting yes – but probably not fun.
Wow, when I go off on a tangent, I really go off on a tangent don’t I?
To get us back on track. I hate citrus flavored drinks and I know why. Yep! It has to do with the only scheduled appointment that I left the doctors office with that day. Uh huh. Yep. That’s right- that nasty test. A colonoscopy and gastroscopy.
Ok, those tests really aren’t that nasty. The last few that I’ve had done (last time was January!) I was actually put to sleep. Man that was nice. I’ve done a gastroscopy (tube down throat into stomach) without any sedation in the past thought and that was not pleasant. I highly recommend sedation.
It’s preparing for the test the day before that’s so bad. My appointment was scheduled for September. Now, when you are in a lot of pain and haven’t been able to work for almost eight months, waiting two plus more months for a test that might finally help the doctors get to the bottom of things (pun intended) is a long time. On top of that, the test was scheduled for the day after my birthday!
That would mean I’d have to prepare for the test on my birthday! Ah, no way! My birthday isn’t a big deal, but to have to go through that on my special day, uh huh. I accepted the appointment but asked if they could put me on a cancellation list.
Just my luck, they called me on Thursday and told me that they had a cancellation for Monday at 7 a.m. Boy am I lucky!
Have you figured out why I hate citrus drinks yet? For those that are not in “the know” I’ll tell you why. It’s because the drinks that they make you take the day before your test are citrus flavored. Yeah, the drinks that clean you out. I’m not even going to get into that … let’s just say I’m squeaky clean inside and out right now with 5 hours to go before my test.
It’s bad enough what the drinks do to you. For me it’s particularly bad because I already have abdominal pain. The cramping from the drinks almost made me pass out a few times. But why on earth can’t the drinks come in different flavors? Maybe a chocolate or berry flavored one wouldn’t be so bad?
The clean out stuff that I had to drink on Sunday was very very lemony. So lemony that it seemed like I was sucking on a lemon. I shivered every time I swallowed a sip. Yuck and double yuck.
Wish me luck!
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Wow, nurse, jeweler, photographer, gardener, blogger…you are a true Renaisance Woman. Or a superhero!
Good luck with the scans. I had an MRI this morning because of my gallbladder problems and it went very well. No problems with metal things floating around in my body though…nothing exploded anyways..LOL
heh. That was one hell of a tangent.
Fab – I’m also an avid herpetoculturist (reptile enthusiast) AND have an article coming out in Reptiles USA annual magazine this August.
Just too much time on my hands … have to keep busy!
Christa – glad to hear that your MRI went well. I’ve never had one but I hope mine goes well whenever I have it too.
Joe- I seem to specialize in that these days. 🙂
Hope you’re feeling better. I also hate all the preparation that comes with tests. Having the test seems bad enough. 🙂
When I had my colonoscopy last year, what I had to drink certainly didn’t taste like citrus. I wish it had.
Just pray you don’t have to go for a CAT Scan of your GI tract. They make you drink a quart of barium. And if you thought you feel bad now, try drinking that with an already sick stomach.
Blaghhhh!