05:03 Sep 24 2011
Times Read: 778
*TMI involved.*
So the angiogram was on Wednesday, it went okay. The day before, they called and wanted to reschedule. Heck no! After everything we arranged and things, we needed to get this done and over with.
Well, we left at 5:30 am. My mom, me, and Brett going to Morgantown to get this dang thing done and out of the way.
We made it down there at 8:30 am. We hit up the cafeteria for them to eat something and headed up to the cardiology unit.
To be honest, being sent to the heart care unit where my nephew was taken care of confused the hell out of until I understood that's where the equipment was for the cerebral angiogram.
Well, I was prepped at 9:30 am and they couldn't find any veins on me. After the one female stuck me twice and moved the needles a whole bunch, she offered the new guy... I didn't find out he was new until later. It was his second day on the job, but he got the vein on the first damn try! Woot!
Emergency after emergency happened... they couldn't help the wait and offered me the option of rescheduling. Um NO! Heck no!
I finally got to go back about 5:30 pm to get the test done. Nothing seemed to be working right at first. They couldn't even give me the one medication without a proper blood pressure reading and the cuff wasn't working. The one nurse went and got another one and it was working but expanded so much it came off of my arm. At least I warned them of it as it was happening! LOL!
They finally got a reading though after about eight or ten minutes. Once that was done, things got moving right along.
I was placed in what they call conscious sedation, which allows me to respond to them and see what's going on around me. Although I had a semi-bad response of being really dizzy and nauseous from it and had to keep my eyes closed the whole time. It felt incredibly weird though. I wish I could explain it. I can't say it felt like a dream because it didn't. I felt drunker than I've ever been. I've never taken street drugs... so I can't compare to the feelings of those. But the feeling was insane and it felt good and scary in the same.
I got a shot to numb the catheter site. It went in my right groin. The pressure felt as though Aurora's head was coming out of my hip instead of my birthing canal. Once it was it there, the wire was next going in, I could feel it only here and there. Once in my belly about where my "factory" would be and then again in my neck a couple of times. It just felt like a little bit of pressure though.
When they injected the dye into my head and took the pictures, it became painful to my "migraine site." The last image taken was the worse though. Each time, a little of the dye went into my mouth. It tasted like metal. That last image though... it felt like I took apart my electric blanket put the wires on high under my scalp and left it for 30 or so seconds. The pain in my temple shot up and trying to hold my breath and keep still sucked. I did it though. I gasped when they told me I could breathe.
After everything was taken out, which was done quickly... there was one thing left. The catheter and putting in a "fake clotting device." It was ultimately the worse part of the whole experience.
Two people held down my leg without me realizing it until I went to pull it up. The doctor put that in there and it expanded. He applied pressured.
Oh my freakin' god! It hurt so bad! It felt like he had reached in and ripped out the artery in my groin clear down in my leg and into my belly. My heartbeat went from 60-something to 124. They calmed me down. I went back to recovery... over to the Cardiac Care Unit.
I feel bad because no one had ever thanked the doctor for doing the test. On the way out the door, I thanked him. It's not his fault, I'm in this situation or the emergencies came up. I'm just grateful to get it done and to get the results on down the road while I can still do something about it.
I got released early because I was a good girl.
I was approved to be released but they wanted me to pee if I could. It was mandatory, they could have kept me an extra 20 or so minutes to make sure everything was okay.
Before we left, I had to pee. I had a vaginal response. Blood in my urine. Lots of blood. I came out of the bathroom and tried to make it to my bed but leaned against the wall and almost slid down it before my nurse could get to me. There was no blood on my bandage though. He helped me lay back in the bed and got me cold water. After a few, I was better. Just my body recovering from the shock of things.
We were on our way home at 8:30 pm. We made it to my mom's by 10:30 pm.
First moving in the morning has been the part that hurts the most during the day. Aurora's hit me a couple of times directly on the site but it's not bled. I'm lucky.
And this test was done to see if I have a 2 mm brain aneurysm. On the wet copies, it didn't show up. But they said, since I had my disc with the other tests (the MRA and CT Scan) they would know where exactly to look as the images developed.
I get the final results on Monday. I'm hoping the final results are the same as the wet copies but with an explanation of what they saw on the prior tests that I needed to go through this at all.
I'm just relieved and irritated at the same time that I went through the test and nothing showed up on the wet images. It's a good thing, of course. But yeah. It doesn't explain what showed up on the MRA and the CT Scan which was the whole reason my neurologist since me to see the neurosurgeon and he sent me down there for this cerebral angiogram.
God, I sound whiny for someone who just might have found out for sure they don't have a brain aneurysm. Huh?
I need some sleep. Goodnight.
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