Testing 1, 2, 3

Things are going pretty good.  I felt pretty overwhelmed when I got out of the hospital, but I am starting to get things organized again.  The apartment is pretty much set up except for one room and most of my Dr's appointments are scheduled... just waiting on a few call backs.  My port is healed for the most part.  It is a little less than three weeks since the surgery. I don't really feel it anymore.  Sometimes I feel it when I am lying on my stomach and it hurts when I hit it.  Jay threw a shirt at me and it didn't hurt when the shirt hit me, but then a second after I felt the pain.  It wasn't a strong pain and it didn't last long at all, I just didn't expect it.  haha  It is hard to explain, kind of like a delayed reaction.  Like when you touch something hot for a split second, you pull away on a reflex and actually feel the heat a second later.  I also hit it on the couch when I leaned forward to see my kitty Lindy.  Forgot about it haha.  So a little sore if I mess with it, but I don't even realize it most of the day. The one thing I am really nervous about though is the appointment to get it flushed.  They are going to teach me how to put a needle into it and flush it with heparin.  This needs to be done once a month to keep it from clotting.  I have a cream that will numb my skin so I won't feel it, but I am still nervous about sticking a needle into myself. I am not a queasy person, I could do it to anyone else, I just don't know about myself.   haha

Yesterday I got three of my tests done.  They were all pretty easy.  The x-ray was just a simple front and side view of my lungs.  The CT scan was of my chest.  I was laid down on a table and there was a large circle machine behind me that looked like a doughnut.  As the table is moving all around to get images the machine was telling me when to hold my breath and then breathe again.  The quantitative scan was a little more in depth.  I had to get an injection of a tracer.  They told me that the tracer will go through my blood vessels and they look to see where and how much blood is traveling through the lungs.  I am not sure if there is more they look at or not, but that is all the tech told me.  I will ask about it the next time I talk to my doctor in New York.  I won't know any of the specific results of the tests until I go back up to Columbia.  The next tests to be done are the DEXA scan and the UGI. So until then. :)