I woke up this morning barely being able to talk.  My throat has been sore the last couple of days and today it still hurts and now I can't talk very well.  Unfortunately because of my tooth that was pulled, I need to not suck on any hard candy yet which means no throat lozenges for me...  Then this afternoon I had to start fasting for my CT scan.

Originally I was scheduled for the scan in the morning down here at the clinic near my house but I got a call last week from the study coordinator who said that if I was going to enroll in the new study then I needed to sign the consent forms before my lab work and CT scan were done.  So we rescheduled the scan for the downtown location on that same day but the only time they could fit me in was 6:15 p.m. (and pick up my contrast at about 4:45).

Then around 2:45 today I got a call from the study coordinator again asking if I could get there any sooner because they needed to try and get the lab work off to the drug company that day and the last FedEx pickup is at 5:00.  I said that the earliest I could leave home was 3:15 when my son gets home from school and can babysit the little ones for me.  That should still get me to the clinic around 4:00.

So I left as soon as my son got home and got there right around 4:00.  I went to the radiology clinic to checkin and get my contrast drink first and they said that the tech wouldn't bring it down to me until 5:15.  I was a bit confused by that because they have always had me start drinking the contrast 1 1/2 hours before my scan.  I asked the receptionist about that and she said that different radiology technicians do things differently and this one likes to have you start it only an hour early.

So then I quickly went back downstairs to check in at the clinic where my labs will be drawn and where I will talk with the study coordinator.  I told the receptionist that I was there for labs and needed to meet with the study coordinator.  Apparently she chose to just process the first part of my information and only told the nurses that I needed labs drawn.  So after sitting around for almost 10 minutes they finally called me back to the room where they access my port and I said that I needed to meet with the study coordinator before I did any labs.  So after asking several different nurses I finally saw one of the nurses that works with my doctor and she went to let the study coordinator know that I was there.

She came out a few minutes later and we discussed the study and the drug and what it does and I asked her a bunch of questions about it.  Basically this part of the study is specifically for BRCA-1 patients and the drug is supposed to help prevent the formation of new cancer cells and hopefully even kill off cancer cells that have already formed.  It would require me to take 2 pills a day and get labs drawn every 4 weeks with a CT scan every 8 weeks (not too crazy about that requirement).  Unfortunately the most common side effect is nausea which can hopefully be controlled with other medications - not too crazy about that either.  The good news is that I can pull out at any time and for any reason.  So I decided to sign up for the study and then went to have my labs drawn.  The person from the lab that needed to process the blood work was standing right there almost pacing, ready to grab the blood as soon as it was ready.  I still think they managed to not get it ready in time because I heard the study coordinator talking on the phone to someone about it.  Not really my concern though at this point.

So after that I went back to finally pick up my contrast drink and the study coordinator came with me because she still needed to get an EKG test done on me before I left.  She asked the receptionist at the radiology clinic if there was a room they could use there for it but she said we would have to ask one of the radiologists.  So after they finally brought me the contrast drink we went back down to our clinic and she took me into a room and called someone down to run the EKG test.  They had me lay down and put about 12 different little tapes on me on different areas of the body and then hooked them up to the machine and it took about 2 minutes - pretty painless.

Then I was finally ready to go back to the radiology waiting area and had not quite an hour to wait for my scan.  Once they called me back for that it was pretty quick.  I have learned to wear clothes that have no zippers or metal anything and then I don't have to change at all and they just have me lay on the table, hook up my port to the dye contrast and then start the scan.  Afterwards I had to go to the after hours clinic to be de-accessed.  Talk about running around today!!