The CAT Scan and a warming sensation... like you wet yourself

So I'm dying... well, maybe, kinda. I guess everyone is dying albeit just very slowly. Anyways, as some of you might know I have a condition that requires me to get regular blood tests every 3 months. (I'm still kinda touchy about being so open with this info to all of the world, but if you must know, you'll have to talk to me directly.) Nothing really freaky or anything but a preventative measure. My last blood test showed showed an abnormality that triggered a string of other events that included an ultrasound, more blood tests, and as the title suggests, a CAT scan.

As a tech guy, I thought all this medical gadgetry was pretty awesome except that it had to be used on me. And that kinda freaked me out, a lot.

Needles don't bother me much, but the two bottles of barium that I had to drink before the test made me nervous. I found out that they use that stuff as a radiocontrast agent for X-ray imaging and other things like green colored light in fireworks, brake linings, acoustic foams and powder coatings. Mmm.... brake lining for breakfast and dessert. My doctor ordered the CAT scan to check my organs for signs of inflammation. Maybe my drinking days have caught up to me, oh my. (Those who know how much of a cheap date I am better have laughed.)

When I got to my appointment, I had already ran to three Kaiser buildings to find the place. The Kaiser campus in SF is kinda confusing without a map of which services are where. My wait was brief after a quick registration where I acknowledged that I'd be bombarded with X-rays that are potentially harmful to my body. A pleasant nurse soon ushered me to the CAT Scan room that was quite large to house the machine you see above. I was ordered to drop my pants and put on a gown before being led to the CAT bed. There is hooked up to a barium IV that the nursed warned me of a few side affects including a feeling of warmth through my body, a metallic taste on my tongue, and the sensation that I wet myself. The last one made me snicker a little. The whole procedure was fairly quick with 6 passes taking about 10 minutes long. Each pass consisted of me holding my breath while my body was fed into the ring of the scanner. The ring is a track for a X-ray gun and detector to spin around as the body is fed past the detector's plane. The result will be X-ray cross sections of my body, like how one would view rings of a tree. Putting these cross sections together will give a complete 3D image of my internal organs. The barium helps clearly show the shape of the lumina of my organs because radioopaque. The side affects the nurse mentioned to me hit me all of a sudden between the 4th and 5th pass. She was dead on. I felt a warming sensation all over that, I presume, made me feel I wet myself in the nether region as well as the metallic taste in my mouth. All these symptoms quickly went away though, before I even changed back into my clothes.

It's been 30+ hours since the scan; I was hoping I'd hear some result by now, but it's Friday I probably won't know anything until next week. Meanwhile, I'll keep my fingers cross as I try to focus on my studies. The damn test is coming up in one week. ARG!