My Bone Scan Adventure
Wednesday was the day of my scheduled bone scan. If you're not familiar with a bone scan, it's like the opposite of an x-ray. Where x-rays send radiation into your body, a bone scan reads the radiation from your body. How does it do this? With a radioactive tracer they put in your body, of course!
Yes, I said radioactive.
I'm assuming it's "safe" or else they wouldn't do it, right? Or at least that's what I thought before I got the injection. When it came to be time, I was given an IV into a vein in my elbow. Then the nurse grabs a lead box. Nestled inside was a yellow syringe, made of special leaded glass, he tells me. It looks all awesome and old-timey. Exactly what you'd expect something would look like that held radioactive goo.
"You won't feel any different," the nurse says to me. "Perfectly safe." I was more fascinated than scared, to tell you the truth. He says most people get freaked by the lead box. Well, I did feel different. I got a buzzed feeling and it stayed with me all day. Not too buzzed to drive, maybe more like a foggy feeling. I couldn't concentrate, and it was kind of hard to think for awhile. But the amazing thing was they put your arms on the scanner — it scans you from above and below. Right after he injected me, I instantly saw dots of radiation on the monitor.
I told him I was surprised it spread so fast and he said, "Yes, once it gets in your blood stream it's everywhere very quickly — your heart beats 60 times a minute."
I had pictures taken right then after the injection, of my wrists, my elbows and my shoulders. My doc had ordered a bilateral upper extremities scan, to compare and contrast the ouchy side from the healthy side, but to also see if there was anything else going on in there. I had to come back 4 hours later after the radiation had been absorbed into my bones for more pictures of the same. (I know, folks, I don't like typing that anymore than you probably like reading it. lol)
Anyway, even though I could see the images on the monitor, the nurse explained that I wouldn't be able to see the finished films that day. Apparently, they just look like a bunch of dots on a black background until the scans are sent through a special imaging program to read them properly. He explained it should only take a couple of days to get the results and that I should be hearing from my doctor in two days (that would be today). I haven't heard anything yet, but Fridays are my doctor's surgery days, so I don't know if I'll actually hear anything. He did say he'd call me personally though, so I've got my fingers crossed.
And hopefully, I'll be able to see these scans at some point. I'm fascinated by it all. I'm actually praying they DID find something of interest in there, because if not, my doc said there's not much more he can do for me since the MRI I got didn't show any other tissue anomalies, and my x-rays were clear, and if this bone scan is clear, then… Not much more he can do.
That's going to suck if he says that to me. I don't have serious pain, I have full range of motion, but it's stiff in there, and if I press on my hamate bone, that's when it starts to hurt. If I do too many strenuous things, it hurts. And sometimes it just hurts for no reason. That's why I wonder if I fractured my hook of hamate — that non-union fracture can't be seen on normal x-ray films and it seems to have the very same symptoms I'm having. Treatment is extraction of the hook via surgery. Of course I won't know until later today if that's what's going on if/when the doctor calls. So I'll let you know what he says after I talk with him.
~~Becka
