I figured I would lighten the mood of my blog with a funny title. What a day today has been. First off, thank you soooooooooooooooo much for reading my blog (I got over 220 views in the past day, WHOA!), praying for me, and supporting me so much! Today has been amazing. I can't even tell you how many encouraging texts, phone calls, and messages I've gotten today. For reals, thank you so much!
I'm not one to get nervous but today I was off the charts as far as my nerves go. Even though I've known today was coming and I'd done my research on what exactly a nuclear thyroid scan is and what it does, what it can find, and everything there is out there about nuclear thyroid scans, I wasn't really prepared for today! I couldn't fall asleep last night but once I finally did, I decided to sleep as late as I could this morning. We had to leave the house by 9:00 so I didn't really get to sleep late...but I stayed in bed until my mom made me get up. I finally got up and got ready for the day.
I forgot to mention how scattered my brain was yesterday. While I had packed up my Vera Bradley duffel (y'all know I don't go anywhere without all my Vera Bradley), it wasn't until I was home for an hour when I realized I left my duffel at school. "Oh, its just a duffel," you're saying. But let me tell you what all I packed in that duffel...all of my toiletries, including but not limited to my deodorant, perfume, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, and my retainer!!!! (yes, I still wear my retainer) I left my hair dryer, my straightener, and my make up! I left all the clothes I had packed, my underwear, and even my bras. I apologize if this is TMI...but bare with me. Of course the bra I was wearing home yesterday was a bright red bra with pink polka dots. You can't just wear that with anything! Ahhhhh, only I would do that! Only I would pack a whole duffel and leave it at school. Good thing I brought home my mound of dirty clothes so I have clothes to wear! Thanks Mama for washing my clothes in a hurry!!
Back to today...I woke up to the smell of blueberry muffins my mom made me! They even had Mickey Mouse wrappers...so cute!! I ate my muffins and loaded up. The drive to the hospital was nerve-wracking, not only because we were headed to the hospital, but also because I'm still a crazy person on the interstate. Since my wreck, I haven't recovered 100% and I'll be the first to admit it. I try to pretend I'm calm, cool, and collected but I'm definitely not. Every single car that's near mine, I freak out thinking they're going to run me off the road. My mom was driving today so I was freaking out even more because I had no control over the car...not like we ever really do. Cars are big and scary and will totally turn on you in a second. I've learned I just have to close my eyes in car rides so I can't see what's going on around me. It also helped that the hospital's only like 20 minutes away. We found where to go in the North Tower and only waited a couple minutes before being taken back. My nurse came out to get me for the injection.
The first thing I realized about my nurse was that his last name was Dempsey. For those of you non-Clintonites, you might be thinking I have a crazy love for Patrick Dempsey. While he is an attractive man, I was instead thinking of Dempsey's Pizza. I wanted to say something but figured it would be awkward so I just sat there staring at the wall waiting for my nuclear meds. Then Nurse Dempsey (can't remember his first name since his last name was what mattered to me) asked me if I was from Orangeburg.
I said, "Yes! Well, my dad's family is from there!"
He asked if I was related to a Rebecca Fogle.
While my dad's family is from Orangeburg, other than my dad's immediate family, I don't know any of these relatives that I'm sure exist in Orangeburg.
I told Nurse Dempsey, "No, but I'm sure we're related. I remember in 6th grade there was a Rachel Fogle who went missing on my birthday! Everyone came to school thinking I had gone missing!!!"
He said, "Oh yeah, that's Rebeccca's sister, I forgot that happened."
OHHHH MYYYY GOSHHHH hahahahaha I was dying laughing.
What are the chances we're talking about the same person?! Not that I have any idea who the other Rachel Fogle is or why she decided to run away from home on my birthday, but I decided this was my moment to ask about the Dempsey's while we were swapping family stories.
So I said, "I see your last name is Dempsey, are you related to any Dempsey's in Clinton? I go to Presbyterian College and there's a pizza place owned by the Dempsey family called Dempsey's Pizza!"
Of course I was so excited hoping he was a Dempsey, maybe get me some free pizza...but he had no idea what I was talking about. So I told him if he's ever in Clinton he needs to check out Dempsey's Pizza, maybe he'll get the family discount! We can only hope! After our little bonding session, it was time for the injection. I wasn't sure if I would be injected through an IV or just take pills since I had read about both online. So my nurse got out a very interesting pill bottle. When I realized it would be pills I had to take instead of an IV, I got nervous. I only wish the first time I had to swallow a pill had been recorded for special times like this. The first pill I ever took was a HUGEEEEE pill. I was in 5th grade and it literally took me over 15 minutes to swallow just one pill. It was disgusting to say the least. Thanks Mama for coaching me through that difficult time! I could only think back to my first experience with pills when I knew I would have to swallow some pills on the spot. I had in no way been preparing for this. And the fact that they'd be radioactive might have been freaking me out a bit...just maybe! So Dempsey pulled out what looked like a normal medicine container (don't know a better name) and opened the top and it was lined on the inside. At the center was a metal container and inside that was a normal pill bottle. He opened the pill bottle and all I saw was what looked like cotton balls. He picked up the cotton with his gloves and poured the two pills into a small container. My one instruction after all of that, "Don't touch the pills!" I thought WHAT?!?!! So I'm supposed to put these pills into my body but I can't even TOUCH them? What the what? But I took them. There wasn't a replay of my first encounter with pills, Praise the Lord! I took them like a champ. I didn't want my nurse to think I was a crazy person!!! So I left the hospital and went to run errands with my mom.
We went to the DMV, my mom's doctor's appointment, lunch at Ruby Tuesday's (sooooo good!), and headed back to the hospital. My appointment was originally schedule for 4 but we ended up getting to come back at 3. Nurseman told me there would be two tests done. The first would take about 40 minutes and the second would be an uptake test which would only take 2 minutes. Okay this was the part I was really freaking out for. I've had CT scans and MRI's before but I didn't know what to expect this time.
As soon as I laid down, I decided I would just close my eyes so I wouldn't have to see what was going on. My plan was going great until...I opened my eyes. I opened my eyes to see a large thing (lack of words, again) right over my neck. If I breathed out deep enough I could feel it just hanging there. Maybe I was just imagining things but I was pretty sure I could feel it there. They positioned the thing/camera/scanner/no idea what to call it 4 different times and it stayed in the position for 10 minutes. The first two positions were right above of my neck and then they moved it to the right and then to the left. You know when someone tells you to be still but you want to move since you know you're supposed to be still? Yeah, that's how I was feeling. Very claustrophobic and wanting to move more than anything. I would just close my eyes, say a prayer or sing a song in my head, and hope to fall asleep. I kept repeating "Be still and know that I am God" over and over and over. I would pray that all the prayers being prayed for me would just come over me, that I could feel God's peace, and it all worked, of course because God is good like that! I would freak out for the first minute or so after they'd repositioned the scanner. Then I would calm down and fall asleep. I like to think God uses sleep to calm me down because staying awake just makes me freak out more. I guess I would wake up and see the scanner there and kind of jump, and then calm down again. 40 minutes finally passed and I was done. Then we moved on to the uptake test which only took 2 minutes. Again, I had to be still for a minute straight and all I wanted to do was move!!
Before leaving, my mom had questions for the nurse of course. I had to get a doctor's note explaining what type of radiation I had. Since I had nuclear medicine, I could possibly set off the detectors at the airport trying to go to Barbados in a couple weeks. That is not what we'd like to happen so I have to carry around this note with me. Can't have anyone thinking I'm carrying nuclear bombs or anything ridiculous like that. Just me, I'm radioactive hahahaha! Also, we asked when we would have some results.
My mom and I had been talking all day about who to call with the results. I said I want to get the results because well I'm an adult and its my life and my results. But my mom doesn't want me to get more stressed during exam week. She wants to get the results and she'll wait to tell me after my last exam. While her plan sounds like a great one, I'll figure out the results on my own because if she calls me, it'll be good news. I'll know if she doesn't call me that its not good news. Also I want to know the results ASAP because I'm a planner and I'm OCD about everything. I'll totally think out every possible scenario in the next week until I know what's really going to happen. When I looked online as to how long the test results take from a nuclear scan, it said 1-2 days so I was thinking we'd know at the beginning of next week. However, my nurse (not Dempsey but she did know more Fogle's that I'm sure I'm related to) said that it would be 5 business days from tomorrow when the tests are done. So, we're looking at next Friday. This is good because my last is exam is Friday. However, this is not good because that's a WHOLE week without answers.
Okay, y'all I need some prayers for patience and peace. These are two biggies I'm always praying for but even more so now. Keep me in your prayers as I finish up the scan with the uptake test again tomorrow. It won't take long so I shouldn't be as nervous but thinking about the day ahead of me is making me want to freak out already. Tomorrow night we have formalllllllllllllllllllll!!! I already warned the chapter I'll be looking like a crazy person at formal and just to bare with me. Based on how supportive they've been since I told the chapter what's been going on on Tuesday, I know they'll be great! Pray pray pray. Thanks again for reading my blog, keep me in your prayers.
I love you love you love you :)
P.S. Check out the Blessed Text of the Day I got while writing this blog post...
God is too good to me :)
first, waking up with the smell of blueberry muffins..and homemade! that is sooo good:)
ReplyDeleteYou are in my prayers, start from today!