Thursday, September 25, 2014

Testing

Over the past two weeks I've gone to Regions Hospital Specialty Center for additional testing on my brain and my lungs. Before I got sick my vital organs were in good shape. Obviously my lungs were in terrible condition with my Blasto, and during my time in the hospital some other organs began to wear down, but most of them fought back and functions started becoming normal again. Here are tests taken on the two concerned organs, brain & lungs....

(Sorry this could be boring)

CT Scan or CAT Scan
Computerized Tomography is a diagnostic examination using x-rays and computer analysis to view structures of your body (brain) that are not visible with regular x-rays.

MRI
Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a way of looking inside the body. Instead of x-rays, the MRI scanner uses magnets and radio waves to produce clear pictures of your head, spine, or other body parts. An MRI scanner consists of a strong magnet with a radio transmitter and receiver. These instruments gather the information from your body. An MRI scan produces soft-tissue images and is used to distinguish normal, healthy soft tissue from abnormal tissue. 
At times they will give the patient an IV with a dye in it to show specific parts of your body during the MRI scan. Can't wear any metal or have any coins or a belt and had to take off my wedding ring, which oddly enough I lost that same night. Anyway..

You lie down in this large capsule type machine and you are to stay as still as possible for up to an hour. I think mine took about 45 minutes. I had the IV dye when they did mine. Maybe cause I was lying down but after all the several dozens of times getting needles lately, this one kinda hurt lol. While your inside this MRI capsule they do all sorts of loud and obnoxious beating sounds. Not sure how someone much bigger than me could fit into it comfortably at all, I mean my shoulders and arms were snugly up against the inside walls. I could see how someone could feel claustrophobic inside there but I just closed my eyes and listened to the music they offered. I think the first time I actually fell asleep for awhile, which is probably when I moved and they had me come back for another test.

Pulmonary Function Test
This measures the air moving in and out of your lungs. The tests are used to evaluate whether you can breathe normally. Besides helping to diagnose lung disorders, the tests may be important in planning treatment.

During the test, you wear nose clips to prevent air from entering or leaving through your nose. (duh) You breathe through a special machine called a spirometer that records the amount, force, and pattern of your breathing. You sit inside this booth about the size of a phone booth. (do they have phone booths anymore?) The test takes up to an hour, depending on how results come out.

I did this pulmonary test at 7:30 AM and I couldn't have any caffeine before hand as well as several other no-can-does before hand that didn't really apply to me. So I sit in this phone booth with this spirometer thing in my face and the tech asks me to do all sorts of different breathing actions. I really started to get light headed and felt funny for a good couple of hours afterwards. In the doctors office after the test I was a little worried about the results, for one because I was dizzy and for two because I became very hoarse and couldn't talk very well. Ok, and for three, this pulmonary test was very important because this is why I got sick; this fungus got into my lungs and the rest is living history. 

Results
My MRI a few weeks back resulted in findings of way more brain bleeds than originally thought. They found one in my brain during my time in the hospital, but the MRI here showed as many as 30. Wow!? The doctor told us that in the room that day and we just looked at each other speechless. That was a tough day. But we went back for a 2nd MRI and the results were great! Although I did have up to that many brain bleeds, they had stopped and were drying up or whatever the hell they do. Strange thought. But good day!

My pulmonary test was pretty good as well, the doctor said considering where your lung functions were, they look fantastic. Some of the test results were I inhaled or exhaled showed some weakness, but nothing to get concerned about and didn't need to schedule a follow up for a year. So great day! As a couple of my buddies joked after I originally got out of the hospital is something like, "well cheek is a fun-gi" - dorks.

-Cheek


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