I had a doctor's appointment today with Dr. M2. You might remember him as the "medical oncologist", the one responsible for my chemotherapy treatments.
This was just a short follow-up to go over the PET scan results again, and go over the information that he received from my E, N & T doctor, Dr. S. Dr. S has me scheduled for a contrast CT coming up next week, which I am not looking forward to. The contrast injection burns from the inside out. I cannot stress this enough...burns from the inside out!
Let me restate this for clarity's sake...BURNS FROM THE INSIDE OUT!
For you Star Trek fans, you might remember the Next Generation episode "The Most Toys". This is one of my very favorite episodes. In it, a shady black-market-smuggler-used-car-dealer type person just happens to have enough of a certain chemical to counteract the poisoning of the water supply on a planet. In retrieving said chemical, Data's shuttle blows up. The intrepid crew thinks he is dead, but the "proprietor" of the chemical business...one Kivas Fajo...invented this elaborate ruse in order to add Mr. Data to his collection of unique, one-of-a-kind items.
Another one of the unique items Kivas has is called a Varon-T disruptor, a weapon banned by most of the civilized universe. Kivas has four of the five made, of course. This weapon is brutal...it painfully and relatively slowly dissolves the body from the inside out. In the end, he uses it on his consort, Varria, for her disobedience in helping Data try to escape.
This is what the contrast media feels like as it courses through your veins. You can feel the heat...or at least the perception of heat...building up inside your body as if a fire has started inside you. The expect you to lay still on the CT's tray while they put you through the doughnut and the imager whizzes around, all while you are on fire. It is not painful in a sense, but totally and freakishly unusual, unpleasant and uncomfortable.
In other news, I am still losing weight, though slowly. I am now down to 205. That means a loss of 93 pounds so far. So, there have been some benefits to all of this. My blood pressure is down, too, since the time before cancer...or "B.C.". My BP was in the 140/90 range...borderline worrisome. My BP today...even after the aggravation at work...was 127/72. Pretty good, that! Another benefit!
This was just a short follow-up to go over the PET scan results again, and go over the information that he received from my E, N & T doctor, Dr. S. Dr. S has me scheduled for a contrast CT coming up next week, which I am not looking forward to. The contrast injection burns from the inside out. I cannot stress this enough...burns from the inside out!
Let me restate this for clarity's sake...BURNS FROM THE INSIDE OUT!
For you Star Trek fans, you might remember the Next Generation episode "The Most Toys". This is one of my very favorite episodes. In it, a shady black-market-smuggler-used-car-dealer type person just happens to have enough of a certain chemical to counteract the poisoning of the water supply on a planet. In retrieving said chemical, Data's shuttle blows up. The intrepid crew thinks he is dead, but the "proprietor" of the chemical business...one Kivas Fajo...invented this elaborate ruse in order to add Mr. Data to his collection of unique, one-of-a-kind items.
Another one of the unique items Kivas has is called a Varon-T disruptor, a weapon banned by most of the civilized universe. Kivas has four of the five made, of course. This weapon is brutal...it painfully and relatively slowly dissolves the body from the inside out. In the end, he uses it on his consort, Varria, for her disobedience in helping Data try to escape.
This is what the contrast media feels like as it courses through your veins. You can feel the heat...or at least the perception of heat...building up inside your body as if a fire has started inside you. The expect you to lay still on the CT's tray while they put you through the doughnut and the imager whizzes around, all while you are on fire. It is not painful in a sense, but totally and freakishly unusual, unpleasant and uncomfortable.
In other news, I am still losing weight, though slowly. I am now down to 205. That means a loss of 93 pounds so far. So, there have been some benefits to all of this. My blood pressure is down, too, since the time before cancer...or "B.C.". My BP was in the 140/90 range...borderline worrisome. My BP today...even after the aggravation at work...was 127/72. Pretty good, that! Another benefit!
2 comments:
I find the episode of Star Trek you mention very disturbing on many levels and haven't watched it for quite awhile. I don't like the coercion or torture aspects and the burning from the inside out scene is very troubling. I can see though why you'd reference it given you (also disturbing) experience.
I sure wouldn't want to have to go through what you've been going through!
The idea of that kind of weapon is disturbing, to say the least. Just to think about the people that design such things and how sadistic they must be...
It is one of my favorite episodes, not because of that, but because of Data's passive-aggressive response to Fajo's demands, and Fajo's ultra-smarmy personality.
It shows Data's human side as well. When Fajo threatens Varria initially, demanding that Data sit in his chair, he does so to prevent Varria from being hurt. And at the end, after Fajo kills Varria, Data states that he cannot let this reign or terror and lack of respect for life continue. He shoots at Fajo with the disruptor just as he is beamed away. The disruptor beam is carried away in the transporter, but Fajo gets the point.
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