I am familiar with having medical appointments on Valentine’s Day. 14th Feb 22 was when I met with the consultant breast surgeon following the biopsy I had had at the one stop breast clinic. Whilst I had been certain I had cancer, it was still a bit of a shock to discover I had grade 3 TNBC.
I am booked in for a liver microwave ablation next week, and the interventional radiologist wanted an up to date MRI to work from. So another Valentine’s Day appointment it was. This was my 6th MRI so I am pretty familiar with the routine. The medical setting and noisy machine doesn’t make for the most romantic sort of date. Appointments were backed up today so it involved quite a lot of sitting around. Today’s operator was someone I have encountered before and I remembered he streamed a godawful classical muzac loop through the headphones, a bit like being on the worst sort of call centre hold loop, interrupted every so often by “breathe in, breathe out, breathe in and hold your breath, ding ding ding ding…..”
The procedure involves being cannulated (so they can flood you with contrast part way though), lying on the bed, having a weighted mat placed over the area of interest (liver in my case), being attached to the machine that delivers the contrast, being strapped down, given ear plugs, headphones and a buzzer to hold. As the headphones approached I could hear the call centre hold loop emanating from them. I asked if the music could be turned off. It wasn’t.
So I started my 30 minute date with the scanner. It’s the first time I have had an MRI since the pneumonitis made itself known, and the first time I have found the breath hold sections really difficult. It’s also the first time since neuritis so I spent the time with my left arm and leg buzzing at me. Normally I find MRIs ok but this set of conditions (music I didn’t want, screwed up lungs and nerves) made today’s particularly unpleasant.
Setting me up nicely for next week’s ablation. That is also something I have experienced before, and was fairly uncomfortable to recover from. However I still think it’s a better option than going back on some form of systemic treatment. I just hope there’s a bed available for it to go ahead.
