Duck and dead breathing corpse and the conclusion to my checkup

To me the medical world has progress from merely X-ray machine to the likes of MRI, CT scan, PET scan and etc. All this aid a doctor to have a better diagnosis of a patient condition which are suppose to lead to better mortality rate. I am now schedule to have a check up every 3 months for recurrence for the next 2 years. I personally do not really agree on X-Ray machine which has just been recently (early this year) classified as cancer causing agent.

As I was sick last weak and it was time for me to have my checkup, I was at the Gleneagles X-Ray department at 9:15 am, Tuesday 1st March 2005. Of course I was accompanied by my lovely wife. The X-ray department is located at the ground floor near Gloria Jeans Coffee Shop. I approached the reception and was greeted by an Indian lady. The first thing that struck me was she has a crew haircut; it reminds me of the singer Sinead O’connor, the only difference is that she has a darker complexion.

I was summoned to the X-ray machine first; I guess a lot of people do not like X-Ray or maybe taking X-Ray is fast. It’s a piece of squarish metal and at the back of it, is a slot meant for the film. If the machine was not used for a while, you will get an initial tingling feeling due to cold metal plate when your bare chest touches the surface. You will need to expand your chest by putting your hand at the back of your waist. They will give you some weight to hold onto. You could try it out in front of a mirror now; just flap your shoulder a bit, aah you are definitely a cute little duck, hahaha.

Next up is the MRI, the room is near the CT Scan room. You could see the difference between these 2 rooms. Outside of the CT scan rooms you could see the radiations danger sign which is in bright red. As for the MRI room is just some wording saying that if you are having pacemakers, metal object, penile implant, huh! I guess if you have one and went for MRI, it will be one very interesting process, hahaha just joking.

MRI machine is like a long table with a small little cover on top of it. Some said it’s like a coffin and if you are claustrophobia you are advice to avoid it as once its starts to scan, you will be looking at the cover in close range, it’s about half a foot away from your nose. It is also a bit noisy. As for me, I do not mind all those things except for the breathing part as I will lay on the long plank (that looks like a table) and act like a dead breathing corpse as the machine will scan according to you breathing. I have had MRI twice, and each time I was asked to breathe faster which I hate. This time I ended up with my whole body getting numb from the breathing and it tooks 1.5 hours and worst of all, there are scan angles that turn up blur. According to my urologist is still fine as the other scan angles is clear.

My X-Ray, scan and blood result is all negative except for my white blood cell counts which is slightly on the high side as I was having fever, so it means I could be having some infection somewhere. My urologist recommended me to see a gastrologist for my burning sensation which he suspects also could be the cause of infection somewhere in my digestive system. Now I feels better, so in the mean time I guess, I and my wife got to bear with my occasional burping and farting due to wind in my stomach, hahaha.

I will be going for another round of checkup somewhere in June 2005. I guess this will be a routine thing for me, which I treat it as a waiting game. Wait and see…..