Showing posts with label bone scan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bone scan. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 December 2023

PART CXI – Bone density scan #8

🛀 BATHROOM RENO

We were ready to leave for Ottawa by 8 a.m., when we had a contractor show up. He was checking to see if he could replace our vanity. We booked him for the job, to be done Wednesday morn! YIPPEE!!!

Process of cancer treatment: Surgery, regular monitoring, quarterly PSA tests, it has been a journey. Hooray for Canadian healthcare. Our only ticket in was a health card. It costs us for parking, meals whilst on route, and gas.  

2013 <= this is when it all began.

PART I: Preparing for Consultation (Oct. 21)

It was time for another medical trip into Ottawa. Most of our treatments and tests have been in our health unit lately. Apparently, Smiths Falls hospital, much nearer to us, has a 1-year wait for bone scan density appointments. It is crucial to keep track of Joseph Brian's bone density. As once prostate cancer progresses, prostate cancer tends to go to the bones. This is one tool to let us know what is or isn't happening. 

We tried to relax as the snow began to fall. We headed out around 10:30, arriving by 12:00. Still snowing.  The ground is still quite warm, and the snow isn't sticking. We drove through blizzards, but we made it. 
I dropped Joseph off and went to find a parking spot. I had to park at the end of this row, into a snowbank. I took a photo to remind me where I parked!



Indoors we went. Almost everyone was wearing a mask. There was a form to fill in. They have to ensure that people having the test aren't pregnant, etc.!




There are plexiglass dividers between each of the chairs.

He wears sweatpants and running shoes, as you cannot have any metal on you. This is a photo from Wiki.


We were in and out by 12:15, and back on the road. Ottawa Post Office:

The 'new' bridge! 

This was an interesting spot. When we drove along here last they were tearing down trees to build. I know I wrote about it, with photos, but cannot find them. 


Across the highway from the development... Good fences make good neighbours!


The pub in North Gower was packed at 1:20. On a Monday. 

It had stopped snowing, but most of it melted on the ground.

By 2:00 we'd made it to Smiths Falls. On the road since 10:30, my stomach was growling. This contractor truck cheered us up! It was covered in lights. 

We picked up pizza (me) and chicken nuggets (him), wine (me), and headed home to eat. My tummy was grumbling. It was so good to be home. By 4, the sunset was solace. We were rather tired.



Our feet up, we watched parts 3 and 4 of our newest series: Agathe Koltès. Set in Brittany, it is the best way to travel. It is in French, with English subtitles. My French vocabulary is coming back some. 

Friday, 21 July 2017

Bone mass density scan #4: healthcare appointment #59

UPDATE: 11:00 a.m. Friday– Our GP's office phoned. The bone scan does not show any cancer.

Thursday, July 20th, 7:00 a.m. – Departed home, for Ottawa. I let JB drive. I'm glad I did! There was some fog, and it looked beautiful. We've had a lot of rain in southeastern Ontario. You can see some fields are still wet, others with bare areas where seeds didn't germinate.


 I forgot my water bottle, so we stopped in Manotick at Timmy Ho's. I thought the dump truck was going to hit me! It's fun seeing the cows on the farm behind the coffee shop. 


On the road, again...it was morning rush hour!


Up Riverside Dr., it was foggier, and pretty. The beach was quiet then, but very busy when we drove home past it!


8:45 a.m. – arrived in the parking lot, checked in for 8:57. Waited for our 9:30 appointment. They say to get there 20 minutes early. We were! JB had his injection of radioactive material, and off we went for breakfast.


The roads were crazy: construction and people going at the speed of light.


 9:50 a.m. – ordered breakfast at Cora's, across from an OCTranspo garage. JB had a questionnaire to fill in, then back for 11:30 bone scan. What a zoo, the restaurant! One little boy fetched a helium balloon, gave one to his sister. He promptly kept playing with it in the aisle. Banging and banging it, over and over.
His sister kept turning to stare at me. I threw a straw at her. She stopped.

Another boy was playing with his pancake, under his family's table, on the floor behind me! I didn't see him. Thankfully.

I told JB to turn around and poke the fork in the balloon. He refrained.


The breakfast was lovely. You'll note I had them hold the potatoes, and they added tomatoes. They were very accommodating, even though hubby had to bring his own almond milk. He had porridge.



 A cop was marking potentially illegal parkers on the road. They can park there two hours. We simply bought a day pass for the hospital parking lot. You can claim meals, parking and travel for sickness on income taxes. It has to worth your while, for the time it takes!

We drove around, and saw the allotment gardens.


11:10 a.m. – Back at the waiting room,  for an 11:30 a.m. schedule. JB gave me watch, keys, billfold. Lots of sick people, stretchers, bandages, wheelchairs. It gives me the willies. I don't know how people cope with all this.

A full waiting room. Three men, two women, then more arrived. Why one woman needed four people with her was crazy! She was a character. This biggest hair I've seen since the 80s, platform shoes, long red acrylic finger nails like talons! A discussion of Trumpcare are vs. Canadian Healthcare ensued. "At least we're not in the US."
One guy disagreed, we 'still have to wait.' (BUT we don't have to prepay!) With a bone scan, they inject the chemical and we disappeared for two hour. This is the way it works!
Next topic, letting in terrorists, and then paying terrorists...
I clenched my teeth.
I refrained from correcting their egregious arguments, and did my cross stitch, read a book chapter, and playing solitaire on my iPad. I used the beautiful, quilted carrying bag my friend, Jean, made for me!
They carried on, the hour I was sitting there, with bizarre conversations.



11:55 a.m. –  in JB went, he was given an apology for being late. He abandoned me in the waiting room. He was in there until 11:45. I was going nuts in the waiting room with people nattering on and on.
The parking lot was another zoo. A line-up 9 or 10 cars. Somebody didn't have their ticket validated...
Then the guy got out of his bus, and waved me around him. There were 3 cars behind me.



1:45 p.m. – On the way home we stopped in Manotick, to check out their new park. More on that later! We drove by a house I used to rent back in 1994. None of the trees were there then. The bungalow was built for the mansion owner's parents. They lived behind, 3-car garage, indoor pool, Lamborghini, on the river.  The father died just after it was built, and mother didn't want to live there alone. They rented it until I moved out, then put it on the market again. It was a nice interim location for us. I created the garden in the front, with plants from our old home. It's been enlarged.

A deer crossed our path along Rideau Valley Drive.