going under the knife... update II

Went to the hospital for my scheduled CT scan Monday morning...

Before the appointment, I had to fast for at least 6 hours and take 8 5mg prednisolone tablets at 2 intervals (each), at 12 hours and 2 hours prior to the scan.. Those little tablets tasted bitter.. and they are water soluble..

Got to the CT department before the scheduled time with my sister.. She told her boss about my appointment and he was kind enough to let her off work for a while to accompany me.. we were early so we waited.. the department, or should I refer it as a 'clinic' as it is a medium-sized single storey building located within the vicinity of the hospital.. anyway, the clinic was already pretty crowded with people, most of them old folks..

Waited for about 10 minutes before my name was called by a nurse. I was ushered into the CT room.. was told to change into a patient robe, which I wore backward.. :p then I was led to a machine.. much like the one you see on TV..

I lied down on the bench and my sister came over to insert a cannula into a vein on my left hand.. much like the image on the left.. I must admit that she is good with such procedures.. :) I felt a pinch, which is slightly painful than a normal injection and the cannula was in..

Then the nurse strapped me in, put 2 pieces of foam to stabilize my head and told me to stop moving and just breath normally.. then she and my sis left the room..

The huge machine start churning.. A consistent and constant sound of 'vook, vook, vook, vook...' from the rotating X-ray tubes and detectors..  I was 'left' outside the machine for a couple of minutes so that the radiologist could calibrate and adjust the machine (my sister explained this to me after the scan).. Then the nurse came in and injected some contrasting agent into me through the cannula..

First my left arm, then my head, finally my whole body felt warm as the agent cruised through my body.. Then  I was slide into the CT scanner until my entire upper torso was through the big hole of the machine.. I was motionless for a minute or so.. then I was slowly slide out as the scanner took images of my head, neck and shoulder.. think the whole process was less than 10 minutes.. and just like that I'm done! :)

Next Monday, I will be seeing my ENT specialist with the CT result.. and hopefully, he will be able to arrange for an operation in July.. then I will be able to go off to Taiwan with a clean bill of health in mid/end August.. :)