Saturday, August 16, 2008

CAT

CAT scan happened. We arrived at the hospital at 2, on time. Had my first drink at 2:15. Nice lady offered to use the port in my chest instead of sticking me in the arm. I agreed- easy call- then went upstairs to the Oncology clinic to have them access the port. That means they insert a needle through the port and flush it with heparin. Then they can hook up a line from anywhere. In the mean time, the access thing just hangs out under my shirt on my chest. While there, I also started the process to get my script for Oxycontin. Since that's a controlled substance, that has to be done hands-on; no phone renewals.

Second drink was at 2:45. The drinks are a contrast dye which ends up in the system somewhere so they can see contrasts. Got the script at 3:10 or so, so I went to the pharmacy to get it filled. The last time we had one filled at CVS they told us they no longer carried generic and suggested we get it somewhere else. There being a line, I went back to the CAT scan area and gave Mom the script while I went in for the third drink and the scan. Scan went very easily with the port instead of the stick on the arm. They never were able to do that in the past, but have modified the system so it works. They use that to inject another contrast dye into the blood stream. By the time I finished the scan, Mom had the script filled. They told her the manufacturer no longer offers generic. What's with that? I'll bet it has something to do with Oxycontin being the street drug of choice.

So we went to Perkins for a very late lunch. I had to fast for the scan, so I was really hungry. The contrast drinks helped with thirst issues. Then home, where a certain amount of gastric distress was encountered. That cleared up, mostly, by bedtime.

Did you see the latest Bigfoot thing? I never got a real good look, but Piltdown Man comes to mind.

I saw the USA-Canada women's soccer match the other day. Good match. US won. Brandi Chastain did the commentary; you'll be interested to know she kept her shirt on. I still think soccer would be a better game to watch if they were able to hang on to the ball. The way it is I get the impression that luck plays too big a role.

I watched some of the boxing. Same old, same old. The judging is really subjective. They count hits with the front of the glove on the head or body, and there is some complex way that more than one judge has to score it for the hit to count. They are going to get kicked out of the Olympics if they don't come up with a scoring system which everyone accepts as fair. The rules are made by the governing body for the sport, as they are for all the other sports as well.

Today I've got to finalize the packing. I discovered yesterday that a lot of my polo shirts are too big to be comfortable. When I was working, we changed our dress code to business casual; basically the rule was we needed collar on the shirt. So I discovered polo shirts were as comfortable as T shirts with a collar. So I've got a lot of them. I was planning on wearing polo shirts in the evening for dinner and the like. Not a big deal; I could always just take the tie off and wear the dress shirt.