Wednesday was the biggest day for these initial tests that Patti is going through. Today (Friday) she is going through the Bone Marrow Biopsy which is more invasive than the tests that she got Wednesday and she has a 'port' she'll get implanted on Monday, both, I think, are more involved and and invasive than the tests she went through but by far it was the longest day so far and left her drained and exhausted.
We both woke to the alarm early in the morning, she got ready and left with her Dad and I went back to sleep because I was taking Aiden to preschool. Aiden loved Daddy waking him up because Daddy doesn't rush or have a backbone to rush his precious 4 year old boy. Thanks to Grandpa Phil, Aiden had a bagel for breakfast which he absolutely loved, and loved it so much that he took 30 minutes to eat it, again Daddy doesn't pressure.
So after dropping him off at preschool, I took the long arduous 20 minute drive to the U of M campus (I was kidding about long and arduous, traffic was a breeze, surprisingly). The hardest part of the drive was not running over college students when I wanted to turn, yes I know they have the right of way but just hold up for 5 fricken seconds so I can turn into the parking garage, no, oh okay, I'll wait until the light turns red and I can no longer turn due to Minneapolis Law. Essentially for the next 2 1/2 hours it was a waiting game with Patti's father in the lobby.
The PET scan is a 2-3 hour process which started at 6:25 am. First is taking a radiation slurry which essentially make the lymph nodes around the body turn into a Friday night dance party, lighting up which would be a bad thing (we still don't have the results). After she takes the drugs the hardest part pretty much of the whole day is the fact she has to remain still for a full hour. This means no tv, no more reading, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks. I assume so she doesn't metabolize the drug too fast since it leaves the body relatively quickly, but I haven't had the opportunity to ask. This was fine for her since she was lacking on sleep and pretty much slept for the entire hour.
After she got out, we said goodbye to her Dad who then went on to work for the day. Our next appointment was at 8:30, unfortunately it was 9:30 so we had to race over to the Pulmonary Function Laboratory. I think these people have been through this once or twice since they totally understood why we were late. We had barely sat when Patti's name was called and we were walked into a small room with a large glass enclosed box in the corner. This was the Lung testing area (Hey kids, Pulmonary has to do with breathing) and through a series of tests they took her base line readings to see how her lungs were.
Each test had a purpose of seeing how much air she could breathe in, breathe out, the strength of which she could do either, how well the lungs were absorbing oxygen, CO2, etc. They took these tests again, to get base line readings so that if during treatment Patti had trouble breathing, or just seem to be winded all the time, they could retest her and see if anything had changed.
Last test of the day had us go back to the Hospital for Echo Cardiography. Since the PET scan had us running late, we were late for this appointment as well, but just like the Pulmonary Test we had barely sat when our name was called. Both times being called that quickly I was not brave enough to look in the eyes of the other patients who had been waiting a lot longer than we had and seeing all the 'Who the heck are you budding in line!' in the looks of the angry people.
So an Echo Cardiogram is a test to look at the heart. It is essentially an ultrasound for the heart and how it is functioning. I could probably tell you a lot more but due to lack of sleep, I dozed off through most of this. Like the pulmonary tests it to take base line readings so if there are any problems later, they can refer back to this as they take more tests. There was a cool laser light where her heart produced amazing colors and if I wasn't I wasn't dozing, I might have turned on some techno and danced around.
That is pretty much it from this day. She was thinking she would go back to work after the tests but they left her so drained she was practically asleep by the time I went to work that day. They weren't invasive but they were more than anything, mentally exhausting and combined with a lack of sleep, Patti definitely needed to rest. I went to work after that, also emotionally drained haha.
Next two posts coming in quick succession will be about humor de-stressing us and then the Bone Marrow Biopsy. Her port implantation post which we are currently going through right now will probably be later today or tomorrow before we get our final results. When we get the final results and our chemo schedule we will not be posting it quickly. We will let family know first, then friends, then ...dun dun dun....THE WORLD!
That is all...
We both woke to the alarm early in the morning, she got ready and left with her Dad and I went back to sleep because I was taking Aiden to preschool. Aiden loved Daddy waking him up because Daddy doesn't rush or have a backbone to rush his precious 4 year old boy. Thanks to Grandpa Phil, Aiden had a bagel for breakfast which he absolutely loved, and loved it so much that he took 30 minutes to eat it, again Daddy doesn't pressure.
So after dropping him off at preschool, I took the long arduous 20 minute drive to the U of M campus (I was kidding about long and arduous, traffic was a breeze, surprisingly). The hardest part of the drive was not running over college students when I wanted to turn, yes I know they have the right of way but just hold up for 5 fricken seconds so I can turn into the parking garage, no, oh okay, I'll wait until the light turns red and I can no longer turn due to Minneapolis Law. Essentially for the next 2 1/2 hours it was a waiting game with Patti's father in the lobby.
The PET scan is a 2-3 hour process which started at 6:25 am. First is taking a radiation slurry which essentially make the lymph nodes around the body turn into a Friday night dance party, lighting up which would be a bad thing (we still don't have the results). After she takes the drugs the hardest part pretty much of the whole day is the fact she has to remain still for a full hour. This means no tv, no more reading, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks. I assume so she doesn't metabolize the drug too fast since it leaves the body relatively quickly, but I haven't had the opportunity to ask. This was fine for her since she was lacking on sleep and pretty much slept for the entire hour.
After she got out, we said goodbye to her Dad who then went on to work for the day. Our next appointment was at 8:30, unfortunately it was 9:30 so we had to race over to the Pulmonary Function Laboratory. I think these people have been through this once or twice since they totally understood why we were late. We had barely sat when Patti's name was called and we were walked into a small room with a large glass enclosed box in the corner. This was the Lung testing area (Hey kids, Pulmonary has to do with breathing) and through a series of tests they took her base line readings to see how her lungs were.
Each test had a purpose of seeing how much air she could breathe in, breathe out, the strength of which she could do either, how well the lungs were absorbing oxygen, CO2, etc. They took these tests again, to get base line readings so that if during treatment Patti had trouble breathing, or just seem to be winded all the time, they could retest her and see if anything had changed.
Last test of the day had us go back to the Hospital for Echo Cardiography. Since the PET scan had us running late, we were late for this appointment as well, but just like the Pulmonary Test we had barely sat when our name was called. Both times being called that quickly I was not brave enough to look in the eyes of the other patients who had been waiting a lot longer than we had and seeing all the 'Who the heck are you budding in line!' in the looks of the angry people.
So an Echo Cardiogram is a test to look at the heart. It is essentially an ultrasound for the heart and how it is functioning. I could probably tell you a lot more but due to lack of sleep, I dozed off through most of this. Like the pulmonary tests it to take base line readings so if there are any problems later, they can refer back to this as they take more tests. There was a cool laser light where her heart produced amazing colors and if I wasn't I wasn't dozing, I might have turned on some techno and danced around.
That is pretty much it from this day. She was thinking she would go back to work after the tests but they left her so drained she was practically asleep by the time I went to work that day. They weren't invasive but they were more than anything, mentally exhausting and combined with a lack of sleep, Patti definitely needed to rest. I went to work after that, also emotionally drained haha.
Next two posts coming in quick succession will be about humor de-stressing us and then the Bone Marrow Biopsy. Her port implantation post which we are currently going through right now will probably be later today or tomorrow before we get our final results. When we get the final results and our chemo schedule we will not be posting it quickly. We will let family know first, then friends, then ...dun dun dun....THE WORLD!
That is all...
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