Over the next few weeks there is a lot of testing going on. Tests alternate between St. Boniface and HCS seemingly based on which facility has openings for a particular test. I get good at navigating both hospitals.
- Blood work – 8 tubes are collected and I don’t even bother to ask what they are testing for. With this much, they are testing for a ton of stuff. The tech says the most tubes she’s ever collected on a single patient is 13, so not a record, but up there.
- CT Scans – Now that we have a chest CT, lets look around at the brain, abdomen & pelvis. Thankfully, the do this all in one visit.
- The Biopsy – worthy of it’s own post.
- A MUGA scan – in layman terms a video of my heart function. Apparently chemo drugs can mess with your heart so this is to see how it’s currently doing and get a baseline for future testing.
- A PET scan – the grandaddy of exploration, basically looking for cancer anywhere in the body (my simple take). The rough part of this one was the no sugar, no carbs the day before and only water from 5:30am. In hind sight I should have got up at 4:30 and had breakfast, but sleep seemed a better deal at the time.