Hug Twice

Yesterday during my CT scan I sneezed.  Twice.  And suddenly became the most interesting person in the world to the Radiology department.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

When I went in for my CT scan, I had to sign a paper saying that I understood there was a risk I might die.  Which wasn’t very fun to think about, and not what I expected at all.  But apparently the dye they use for the contrast in the CT scan has a low incidence of reaction (~5%) and once in a while, or about 1 in 10,000 people, actually die from it.  I’d honestly never considered that going in for some kind of abdominal scan might kill me.  But here we are.

So I sign the sheet, and the morbid side of me starts thinking about how I might die.  Which isn’t pleasant, so instead I do something constructive and write a will on a piece of paper in the book I’m reading (which actually is about wills and living trusts, things we need to much more formally take care of sooner rather than later) and stick it in the book.  Not really all that constructive either, actually.

When its my turn, the radiolology tech makes a big deal out of the fact I am allergic to strawberries, and goes off to talk to the radiologist.  She comes back and says its fine, and onto the scan we go.

And then about 2 minutes after they start the dye, I sneeze.  Twice.  Almost three times, but I held in the third one, because I figured sneezing during a scan wasn’t really the greatest of ideas.

But apparently, a sneeze is a reaction.  So now I’m in the lucky 5% who have a reaction to contrast media.  And while I’m pondering that, the tech says I have a bump above my lip.  Which quickly goes from a bump to a full blown hive.

Just one.  Above my lip. I don’t even feel it, but I now know its there.

So the tech gets a nurse and I’m put under watch for a while while they wait for the radiologist to be done with another patient.  Everyone keeps asking me how I feel, and honestly, I feel so panicked I don’t even know how I feel.  Do I itch?  Well, if you ask me, all of a sudden of course I do.  They get me water and I quietly wait and think about if a hive and a few sneezes is really such a big deal.

Eventually I am allowed to go home.  Nothing worse happened, I didn’t sneeze any more, the hive is gone, but I must now forever write down that I had an adverse reaction to contrast media when filling out medical forms.

And the drink I had to drink an hour beforehand for the media to work tasted like bananas.  I almost threw that up before finishing it.  I despise bananas.  Ugh.

Next week I find out the results and we see what’s what.  Hopefully, there is nothing wrong and I am just crazy.  And slightly itchy. 

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Today I am having a CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis.  I’ve been having some unexplained pain in my lower left quadrant of my abdomen (along with a few other symptoms too gross to discuss on this blog lol), and the pain by location could originate in either part of my colon or in my left ovary.  My family doctor hypothesized either a problem with my colon that I can’t remember the name of, or an ovarian cyst as possible causes.  So today I am having a CT scan, which may, depending on the results, be followed up with a colonoscopy or an ultrasound at a later date.

Fun times.

The interesting thing is that as “Mom”, I have barely had time to even think about this.  I’m too busy trying to coordinate picking up CJ from preschool, getting to the hospital on time, coordinating with my spouse when he’ll pick up the kids from the hospital so I can have my scan done at the right time, and a million other tiny details.  Four years ago, I would have been obsessing about what might or might not be wrong with me.  Today, I’m obsessing about making sure they don’t put CJ on the bus at school so I can pick him up and not be late for my appointment.

How things change. 

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CJ started taekwondo about a month ago, and this past Saturday, he went to his first tournament as a competitor.  At his age, they don’t actually compete - it is called an “introduction to competition” and they come up and do their forms and one-steps, and every child receives a special trophy.  CJ was very overwhelmed by the big room and the crowd, but once he got to his ring, he was fine, and his Daddy and sister watched him compete.

They tell me he did a great job.

Such is the life of a taekwondo mom who is on the tournament staff.  I did actually get to see some of his competition (but not all of it) and I wasn’t the one to take him to get his name engraved on his trophy or take him home.  I had about a million responsibilities I had to take care of during the tournament, and although I snuck back to his ring as often as I could, I didn’t get to give it my full attention.  And as he gets older, it will just get worse.  At least I got to see some of what happened.  I watched him go up to do his form, and follow along with his helper, and run up to give the judges a high five.  And when I got home that night, he told me about all the “new friends” he had met.

He’s very pleased with the trophy.  When he got his trophy, he immediately started studying it, and someone commented to me that he was reading it.  But I knew what he was doing.  He was looking for his name.  I told him that his name would be on his trophy.  I meant after we had it engraved.  He thought it just came that way. 

CJ is also very careful to tell us that this is NOT Mommy’s trophy, or Daddy’s trophy.  It is his trophy.  And indeed it is.  One of many, I am certain. 

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Alexa has only been walking for a short time, but already she is up to tricks. Her latest trick is to pull a winter hat over her head, covering her eyes, and stumbling about. A disaster waiting to happen! But a cute one.

When I pull the hat up so she can see (not taking it off, just uncovering her eyes) she gives me THE LOOK, pulls it down again, and goes on her merry way.

We all know THE LOOK, right? The “Stop messing with me” “Stop bothering me” “I’ll do what I want” look. At just shy of 18 months, Alexa’s already got it perfected.

I am in for a looooooong adolescence with that one, I think.

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Tomorrow CJ will have his pictures taken at school.  Unlike the fall pictures, we don’t buy a package in advance for these.  Everyone is opted in.  Then they deliver the finished pictures to the school, and we buy the ones we want.  They print them all beforehand.

They take 3 poses!  And no way to opt out.  Well, except not sending CJ to school, I guess.

Argh.  I am so irritated.  This is blackmail to get me to buy pictures.  Bah.

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