Arrived at UCLH one hour before my appointment, as requested, with my wife, May. Checked in and waited for my name to be called, which didn’t take long. First question: “Have you done your bowel prep?. I hadn’t so into the nearest available toilet to insert the micro enema. Sat on the toilet and waited about 15 minutes. Success! Then taken by a radiographer trainee (Mataz?) who did the usual checks: Name? Date of birth? First line of your address? Passed this stage with flying colours. Explained I had a bit of a cold, which might make me cough during the process. Advice was to cough if necessary but not worry about covering my mouth with my hand. Then Mataz took me verbally through the process once more to ensure I understood what was to happen, and the possible side effects. Then three cups of water and wait for forty minutes for my bladder to fill up. A lady radiographer took me to the inner sanctum where the equipment was situated. Another check on my name and date of birth.
Off with the shoes and trousers, then onto the carbon fibre bed, with my feet in stirrups, a support under my knees and one under my head, exactly as in the training session on March 6th. I was instructed to lie ‘heavily’ on the bed, not to help them in any way and they would move me into the right position. The sighting dots for the laser alignment beams were visible but someone inked in two straight lines around each dot to highlight their position once they dimmed the lights. The equipment was like something out of Startrek, with a large circular dish above me and two boxes on separate arms each side of me. I was assured the equipment would mve aound me, come close but not touch me. My arms were across my chest, on my shoulders like a superhero or, maybe, a rapper.
Once the equipment started, a warning klaxon was sounded to get the staff out of the way. The bed was raised closer to the large, circular dish. Then came various machine sounds and noises, as the equipment revolved around the bed anti-clockwise, then clockwise. A scan was completed, together with x-rays and the first blast of R/T, which lasted about a minute. The whole process was over in 20 minutes. One of the radiographers questioned how much water I’d had as my bladder appeared to be slightly smaller than on the training scan. I left via the toilet, making two visits before leaving, with my appointments given to me for the next two days and instructions to get plenty of rest and drink as much as possible.
