So today was MRI, Ultrasound and CT scan.

I didn’t find the MRI bad at least. Before starting, they had to put a cannula in my arm. She said I had ‘well used veins’ and I wondered if she thought I was a drug addict. She then asked if I’d had a lot of blood tests in the past. Um… No… Though I did tell her that nurses have a history of trying many times to find a vein, which may contribute to that. She agreed that it would.
Geez, charming. Who wants to be accused of having ‘well used’ veins first thing in the morning?

The first arm she tried to put the cannula in, my vein decided to collapse. That hurt. Honestly, that was the worst part of the day! I was sitting there saying ‘ow’ a lot and asking if it was meant to hurt that much. Apparently it wasn’t.

She succeeded with the other arm and off I went into the machine. Ear plugs in, ear muffs on, it was warm, I was comfy and I had a nice little relax for 20 minutes while the machine sang to me. And I really do mean sang. I was expecting just some loud rhythms, but it alternated between different pitches and patterns… It wasn’t scary at all and the time flew by. They injected me with something near the end that they said might make me feel queezy, but it didn’t! So that was a relief. The worst part was the arm with the collapsed vein still hurting a lot.

Then upstairs to CT. I enjoyed that less. It was quicker, but you had to keep your hands above your head and do things like hold your breath at times. Then they inject you with something that seems to pulsate through you and you feel the drip thing jumping around in your hands. That was a bit unexpected and a little worrying. But it didn’t last long. Then shortly after, you feel like you’ve wet yourself. Seriously. They pull you out of the machine and you swear the bed you’ve been lying on will be wet behind you. But no, you’re fine. Thankfully I was warned about this!!! As I was walking back down to my ultrasound, some sticky clear liquid ran out of the cannula in my arm which was a bit stressful. But it wasn’t too much to properly worry me.

They did my scans out of order which meant I got the MRI first, which was good, because that was the one I was most worried about. Everything was a lot quicker and easier after that.

The ultrasound was the best bit. I walked in with plasters all over my arm, and my cannula still in, which was meant to have been taken out. The Ultrasound guy took one look at me and said ‘you poor thing, what have they done to you? Let’s fix you up’ and he took out my cannula and cleaned my arms up and made it all better again. He was really lovely and it was a nice way to end the session. We chatted about how much I love London, he asked me if the doctors had been good to me so far, and most importantly, after putting gel on my neck and running the scanner over it, he said it looks like the cancer hasn’t spread to my neck, glands etc.

That was a relief.

So I still have to have a PET scan, hearing test, echo-cardiogram and kidney test. And then we can get down to business! 5 days until chemo starts. Come at me.