Such an early rise for me this morning, far beyond my normal comfort zone, I'm so not used to getting up this early. Ok, so I’ll readily admit that for some of you seven am is not exactly early at all, but for me it’s practically the middle of the night! An early riser, I am not. Actually I awoke at around six-thirty, I didn't really sleep all that well, I was worried, not about the forthcoming tests you understand, but worried about sleeping through the bloody alarm! I have a habit of doing that you see, sleeping through alarms, I have been known to sleep through three different alarms and miss an important wedding!
Thankfully this morning I awoke long before the alarm and after taking care of the normal morning ablutions, I couldn't really face a breakfast, not with drinking the litre of water I’d been asked to consume before the tests, so I just cycled in toward the hospital. My insides were all awash as my little legs peddled hard against the wind. The six mile ride in was wonderful, well as wonderful as an six my cycle ride can be in temperatures barely breaking above freezing point and the wind nipping at your nose and fingers like a angry jack russell dog with distemper!
I arrived in good time at the department of nuclear medicine at the front of the sprawling amalgam of buildings that is known as The Royal Sussex County Hospital. The waiting area of this department is, I have to say, rather small, with a blue fleck effect floor and the lightest lemon walls, white doors and blue synthetic leather chairs, which were surprisingly comfortable. After a little while a lovely nurse by the name of Mae-Lynn came along to measure and weigh me, the results of which came as a nice surprise, a little bonus if you will. No, I’ve not grown up another inch, sadly, I’m still the five-foot-five shortie was I was before, but I now weigh in at twelve-stone-nine and not the thirteen and a half or so that I did a few weeks ago. I’m bloody pleased about that and couldn’t help but tell Mae-Lynn, in fact my brimming smile told the world of my excess of joy, although to be honest there was only one other person in the waiting area, so its hardly the world, but you know what I mean!
A little while later, before you could count down from one hundred along came another nurse by the name of Mel, asking me to empty my bladder. Now considering the almost two litres of water I’d consumed and all before nine-thirty, that wasn’t a problem. (Obviously I used the toilet and didn’t just empty my bladder right then and there on the waiting room floor!) After that I was shown into the scanning room one, a rather big area with a number of scanning machines and other associated equipment occupying most of the space. I sat down on the bed thingy attached to the machine, which I believe they call a ‘couch’ and whilst the lovely jolly Mel explained the procedure and time scales of what was about to happen, the equally lovely Mae-Lynn was assessing the quality of veins in my arms. Luckily for me, I was having both the NM MAG3 renogram and the NM Glomerular Filtration Rate Cr51 EDTA examinations at the same time. So once Mae-Lynn had chosen an arm, the right one, she injected me with the two different radioactive isotopes one after the other. I felt little other than a tiny prickle as the needle went into my arm, no discomfort from the radioactive material going into my veins and careering all through my blood stream.
Mel showed typical good humour when I joked if I’d glow in the dark after these tests, whilst it may have sounded funny in my head, I wonder how many times a day she hears the same one. At least half a dozen I’d guess, but she smiled and joked along for a second or two, but also informed me that there would be no glowing or other odd occurrences as a result of the injections. Other than having to avoid very close contact with expectant and new mothers nothing at all to worry about and after twenty-four or so hours I’d no longer be radioactive!
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| renogram |
The first was the scan, the renogram part of it and I was told to lay still, very still and the machine would take pictures of my insides, namely kidneys and bladder in twenty second blasts. The ‘couch’ slid back into the scanning machine and I still I had to remain, luckily my ipod for musical diversion was allowed, although horizontal dancing was not. There was also a handily placed monitor that I could view by turning my head to a jaunty angle which displayed the images of my kidneys. It was quite fascinating to watch the proliferation of liquid in my kidneys and then filling my bladder, which looked surprisingly small to me considering the size of the kidney’s themselves. Mind you the whole picture on the screen, to the uneducated eye looks rather like the face of a little mouse!
It wasn't uncomfortable and before I knew it Mae-Lynn was asking me to get up and empty my bladder, apparently half an hour had passed! (I’m sure I didn't drop off, but you know, considering the early start for me it is entirely possible for me to succumb to a wee nap!) Anyway I toddled off for a wee and then back for another minute scan, which was done so easily. My bladder was still a bit full, so I had another wee and we did the minute long scan again.
Sitting back in the waiting room I felt rather oddly normal, not a bit different, not a bit radioactive or anything. I did feel a little ache in my kidney’s or rather my lower back, but you know I'm pretty sure that was just a psychosomatic phantom ache as I’d been thinking about them a whole load. Perhaps they were a little shy, after all, nobody usually sees them and now at least three people had just been looking at them on a screen! Obviously I jest there, I'm sure my kidney’s wouldn't have such feelings, renal shyness indeed!
The GFR test takes about four hours, after they inject the radioactive material they then take half a test tubes worth of blood from the arm at regular intervals. At the end of this, after the bloods been analysed, they will have a four point graph showing how much of the radioactive stuff is still lazily having a jaunt around my body in the red stuff. Apparently this shows how well the kidneys are working at kicking ’bad’ or impurities out of the bloodstream. Kidney’s you see, work surprisingly hard and do rather a lot of work, to my mind they are the unsung hero’s of the human body. They don’t get the same credit as perhaps the heart or the lungs but, without our kidney’s we simply wouldn't survive. So, may I suggest you not only take care of your lovely hard-working kidneys, but you also say thank you to them on a regular basis!
Whilst I was waiting for the big hand to hurry on round the clock face I listened to my pod and actually wrote out this post in my little notebook which occupied my time rather perfectly. Although, I'm a little puzzled now, as I have the word ’Spinach’ underlined twice written in the margin and I've not a clue why! I’m not even a spinach fan! Anyway, off I toddled to another room and they fitted a little cannula to my other arm, again no pain or discomfort, just a little poke with a sharp needle thingy, although technically it’s not a needle, but a hollow plastic tube these days. This was taped to my arm as they’d be using it to take blood for the next four or so hours. Whilst I saw the nurse taking my blood out, even though I watched it filling the vial I didn't feel it going, although having said that, it really isn't much they take at all. I'm not sure of the actual ML’s but it’s roughly about half a test-tubes worth. The only thing I would say is that blood seems surprisingly dark when it is a test-tube and not a jot like it looks all splashed around all over the place, like it is in the movies or on the telly.
I went for a wander around Kemp Town after the first load of blood was taken, just to break up the day, get a little fresh air and stretch my legs. Whilst I was walking around it set me thinking, whilst I may have thought this whole GFR test thing was rather long at four hours, at least I could get up and go for a walk around. The average dialysis session runs for roughly the same amount of time and you definitely cant get up and hand a wander about town during one of those. Plus of course, those with kidney failure don’t jus have one session of dialysis, they have three or four a week! So four hours out of my life is nothing compared to the time they have to give up in order to simply go on living!
The second, third and fourth times they took blood all passed by without any discomfort or incident, thanks mainly to the care of the staff and the cannula in my left arm and at the end of the time I felt wonderfully happy. Another couple of tests done and another couple of steps taken along this journey, getting a lot closer to the end goal now, yippee! Now all I can do is hope that the results of the renogram and the GFR are all good and show everything the consultants want to see and nothing they don’t!
Next examination for me is an ultrasound of the urinary tract and kidneys which will be in a couple of weeks time. This is another test in which I’ll have to drink a few pints of liquid before hand and I’ll not be allowed to have a wee for at least an hour before the scan. I’m rather looking forward to this one too, ultrasounds are all rather easy to cope with, nothing other to do than just lie there whilst the ultrasonographer or whatever the technical name is presses the wandy thing over my lower areas. Apparently I’ll probably be scanned with both full and empty bladder and all this will show the shape, size and position of the kidneys. I’m told it will take little more than fifteen minutes, so not long at all, then after that the only thing scheduled is an appointment with the consultant a whole month later in January.
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