MUGA Scan

Well, I can now officially say that I've had a MUGA scan.  I don't know what the results are yet but I've done it.  I used my most endearing ways to try to wheedle the results out of the technician that did the scan but she just accused me of trying to make her lose her job.  Whatever.  I can wait until Monday...more patience taught by God.  YES, I am teachable.  8-)

The first thing they do with a MUGA scan is put in an IV.  I couldn't believe they couldn't use my port but sure enough, they couldn't.  The technician said the port is just over the heart and if they inject the radiation tagged blood in there that they'll get a 'yucky' picture.  Yup, that was the technical term for the problem with using the port.  A 'YUCKY' picture.  I guess that was the start of the deterioration of the relationship between the technician and myself.  So, she stuck me.  Actually, I didn't feel anything when she stuck me so it was not a big deal when it was all done.  Then they draw some blood out and take it to be 'tagged' with a some radiation material.  Then they inject the radiation tagged blood in through the IV and remove the IV.  After that they take you back to a room to lie down while they take pictures of your heart as the tagged blood travels through it.  

After doing some research on the internet, it looks like before they started the adriamycin, they should have done a MUGA scan to get a baseline reading of my heart and then checked it periodically between each chemotherapy dose to make sure that the chemo wasn't causing problems with the heart.  None of that was done so here we are.  Hopefully, the doctor will be wrong and it won't be my heart causing the lack of circulation in my legs and feet. 

Tom and I did our usual Saturday shopping today.  It is REALLY nice to be able to get out and about again and doing so to just be the 'norm'.  8-)  We went to Cheddar's for an early lunch first and I got some great Chicken Taco Soup and he got the Talapia and rice. For dessert we shared a Hot Apple Pie ala mode.  Yummy.  8-)  We followed all that food with a run out to see Nancy who was holding onto some lotion that she had given me last week during my beauty treatments (that I had forgotten to take with me).  This lotion smells absolutely yummy and since I liked it so much, she just gave it to me.  She is like that...what a sweetheart.  Once I had told her how much I liked a pair of earrings that she was wearing and the next thing I know, she bought me a pair that was very similar. We finished our shopping at WalMart and then Publix and now we are home ready to relax.

For Tom's birthday, he bought himself a game that was part of a series that he and BJ used to play together.  He had tried to download it but when he tried to install it, he kept getting errors and it wouldn't load.  He sent an email to the EA Company but never got a response.  He found someone to 'live' chat with today and they sent him to a different link to get the download manager.  He went there, followed all their directions and started the download while we were out shopping.  He found an actual disk copy of the game at Walmart so we bought that just in case the download didn't work.  Well, we got home and it had downloaded but there was a new set of errors that he was getting.  So, he tried to install the disk copy and got even different errors.  Now he is working on uninstalling the download copy and the download manager and then rebooting and running the tuneup utilities program to get any extraneous registry entries out and then he will try install fresh from the disk copy.  What a frustrating thing just to play a game.  Poor guy...he and BJ loved this game.  I hope this works for him.  He deserves some fun after all the months of care taking he has been doing.

A little Max for today...May we all experience the true blessedness that come from repentance!

"True Blessedness

By Max Lucado

 

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Matthew 5:4 NKJV

To mourn for your sins is a natural outflow of poverty of spirit. . . Many know they are wrong, yet they pretend they are right. As a result, they never taste the exquisite sorrow of repentance.

Of all the paths to joy, this one has to be the strangest. True blessedness, Jesus says, begins with deep sadness."


By Grace Alone -

-T