#41. The Inside Story - February 2012

Yesterday I went for a CT scan.  It was an interesting experience, as I have known people who have had them, but never had one myself.  I couldn’t drink anything for a few hours before.  I got there and they explained everything that would happen and how it would work.  They need to take internal pictures of me so that they can see a number for things.  First, to see if I do have two kidneys.  Sometimes people who want to donate find out they only have one kidney, they were just born that way.  Second, the CT scan allows them to see which kidney they should take and which they should leave, and it helps them determine how it will be transplanted.

After explaining everything they gave me two big glasses of water to drink, which I had to finish in ten minutes.  They also put a little portal in my arm, to give me something intravenously later.  Then they brought me into a room with the big donut shaped machine, and I lay on a table.   The table slid me (at least the torso part of me), into the machine, and it took some measurements.  Then the nurse or technician, or whatever her title was, injected an iodine based dye into my arm.  She told me I might feel a warm sensation, or a feeling like I was peeing, or a metallic taste in my mouth; these are all normal feelings as the dye goes through my body.  Then they immediately slid me into the machine again.  Within a few heartbeats of the injection, I felt a warm sensation, a metallic taste in my mouth and a feeling like I was peeing!  So three for three. Then I was told to hold by breath, I heard the machine whirring and it was taking a picture. Then they had me hold my breath again and they took another picture.  And that was it.  They had me wait around for five minutes, to make sure I did not have an allergic reaction to the dye, and then I was free to go, after they took the little portal out of my arm.

When I see my surgeon I can ask to see the catscan. I want to do that, I would like to see what I look like on the inside!