So Far Things are Flowing!

So I got in for my cisternogram (aka a flow study).  My neurosurgeon's resident (or is it fellow) came and tortured me by ripping off the dressing and pushing around on the surgical site.  I am confident in his talent as a neurosurgeon, but he sure isn't delicate or gentle when the patient is awake (I should have dosed up on pain killers ahead of time!).  Then they injected a radioactive solution (technetium).

As a geeky aside - I just looked at the wikipedia page for technetium.  It was first "artificial" (man made) element.  They discovered it on foil removed from the cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley Labs (LBL).  Okey dokey, enough of that.

After the injection (essentially painless - 30 gauge needle), they took a series of 5 minute long "pictures" to see if the solution was getting distributed evenly throughout my cerbral spinal fluid (CSF).  This was pretty relaxing, I think I got a couple of cat naps in (not much sleep last night - more on that later).  At the end they told me that things were looking good, they just wanted me back down in a couple hours for another set of pictures after things had set for a while.  If this set looks good, then the oncologist has the go ahead for chemo and he'll administer it to me this afternoon.  I'll be watched overnight and head home tomorrow!  Fingers crossed for that best case scenario!!

So, I have to tell you a little about last night.  The woman I was sharing a room with came in from another hospital late in the day and seemed ok until night time came.  She was a loud sleeper, lots of unpredictable snoring/choking/loud cries, etc and she had the TV on loud (turning it down or off woke her up).  Clearly she was in a bad way, and I hope she's doing better today.  As for me, I managed to sleep only until about 2am at which point I just couldn't do it anymore (even with my good ear smashed on the pillow).  I went to the nurses station and asked for ear plugs.  Thankfully, they took pity on me and immediately moved me to a single room (with direction to not mention the room change, because they get lots of requests that they can't fill).

In other news, I have had GREAT nurses here in the neurosurgery unit.  I feel very well cared for, by people who are smart, caring and good at their jobs.  It probably sounds flowery, but my nurses, their assistants, my doctors (mostly- sorry neurosurgeons; you don't get good marks from me this time) are just great.  They know what they're doing, they care about how I'm doing, they care that I understand what is going on...It really makes such a huge difference when you have confidence in the people in control of things.

I'd flip it, but it barely matters.

I'll post a quick update before I go to bed.  I'd say sleep, but that doesn't really happen much here at the hospital.  Thanks for all the support!!