Lying on my back
June 12th 2009 08:41
Back to the hospital today for x-rays on the kidneys.
Which meant an intravenous dose of liquid (Omnipaque350) so that the camera could see whether there was anything untoward in my kidneys - there wasn't.
I had to lie in place for an hour and a half (some people get much longer spells at doing this, apparently), but that didn't seem too much of an effort. They could perhaps have done with one of those tv stands that hang from the ceiling, or a thingamebob that holds a book in place and you can read it upside down - as it were. Failing these I had to talk to a real human being (the radiographer) who explained the difference between radiographers and radiologists (one takes the photos, the other interprets them - in a rough sense), discussed a young friend of ours who is training to be a radiographer, talked about London where we'd both been, where she came from, what we did and so forth. It's surprising how much you can learn in the course of an hour and a half.
I also discovered that they don't actually use x-ray plates anymore to film on: the things they now have have a phosphor coating which, once used, can be wiped clean, and then the
plate can be used for the next job. The plates are scanned into the computer, and these images are kept indefinitely.
However, apart from the conversation, it was all rather unexciting: I didn't have anything much of the hot flushes you're supposed to get when the liquid first goes in, and thankfully I didn't have the feeling of having just wet my underpants (which apart from the hospital gown were all I had on) which is not uncommon. Nor was I aware of the liquid passing through the system, so all in all, my body behaved in a strangely unexciting fashion. Which was okay.
There was a clock on the wall, but it told me it was 5.25 the entire time. Someone had stuck some of those gift bags with children's designs at various places around the wall, but otherwise the scenery was pretty bland. I investigated the machinery above my head - and considered the possibility of how heavy it would be if it fell on me.
I might have gone mad if the radiographer hadn't kept popping in, or sitting down and chatting (which she was obliged to do, since she wasn't allowed to leave me alone for too long). On the other hand, I'd gone to bed the night before at 8.15 because I was absolutely whacked, so I'd had a good night's rest - and was feeling far less edgy than I could have been.
So, another hospital experience behind me!
Which meant an intravenous dose of liquid (Omnipaque350) so that the camera could see whether there was anything untoward in my kidneys - there wasn't.
I had to lie in place for an hour and a half (some people get much longer spells at doing this, apparently), but that didn't seem too much of an effort. They could perhaps have done with one of those tv stands that hang from the ceiling, or a thingamebob that holds a book in place and you can read it upside down - as it were. Failing these I had to talk to a real human being (the radiographer) who explained the difference between radiographers and radiologists (one takes the photos, the other interprets them - in a rough sense), discussed a young friend of ours who is training to be a radiographer, talked about London where we'd both been, where she came from, what we did and so forth. It's surprising how much you can learn in the course of an hour and a half.
I also discovered that they don't actually use x-ray plates anymore to film on: the things they now have have a phosphor coating which, once used, can be wiped clean, and then the
The way they used to do it!
However, apart from the conversation, it was all rather unexciting: I didn't have anything much of the hot flushes you're supposed to get when the liquid first goes in, and thankfully I didn't have the feeling of having just wet my underpants (which apart from the hospital gown were all I had on) which is not uncommon. Nor was I aware of the liquid passing through the system, so all in all, my body behaved in a strangely unexciting fashion. Which was okay.
There was a clock on the wall, but it told me it was 5.25 the entire time. Someone had stuck some of those gift bags with children's designs at various places around the wall, but otherwise the scenery was pretty bland. I investigated the machinery above my head - and considered the possibility of how heavy it would be if it fell on me.
I might have gone mad if the radiographer hadn't kept popping in, or sitting down and chatting (which she was obliged to do, since she wasn't allowed to leave me alone for too long). On the other hand, I'd gone to bed the night before at 8.15 because I was absolutely whacked, so I'd had a good night's rest - and was feeling far less edgy than I could have been.
So, another hospital experience behind me!
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