ultra scanned

Last week the hospital had called me to arrange an appointment for an ultrasound echocardiagam scan. Unlike the pregnant women used to having their belly's rubbed with jelly to look at baby, this one was having the jelly rubbed on my chest to have a look at my heart.

Since they called for arranging the appointment and setting it for today, my brain had decided that it couldn't think about doing any other tasks that it would need to think about until this scan had been taken care of.

Luckily, it wasn't actually too long between arrangement of the appointment and attending the appointment today. So now it's done, my brain is clear to proceed with dealing with the car insurance, a mortgage change, and unravelling a mysterious charge appearing on my mobile phone bill.

I don't think my brain really needed much in the way of excuses to get in the way of doing these things, and I suspect it will still put up a fight.

This ultrasound scan was probably one of the last 'let's have a look inside you without going inside you' procedures I had yet to experience.

I think I now have the full set.

I am an old hand at MRI's and CAT scans. That's a thing I could put on my CV if I ever have to do one. "Highly experienced in being loaded into spaces that are pretty claustrophobic to be honest, and make unsettling electronic whirrs and whines and things." Although I can't think of much in the way of jobs that would be good for. Morgue storage tester maybe.

I can also claim quite recent discomforting experience in having a camera up my nose and down my throat, and similar devices have been used at other bodily entry points and have all been experienced at some stage over the years too.

But today's scan was a genuine first for me. It also had the added benefit of not being uncomfortable or painful in any way, which is always a good thing in my book.

And putting this scan experience at the top of my scan experiences chart, it was done at a smaller local hospital. This was a much easier and closer drive for me than the big county hospitals I had have to travel to for my various prods and pokes.

It was very interesting seeing my heart pumping away in black and white, with the blood flows highlighted in red and blue. And it was live. Which gave me some pleasure to see.

I wasn't really able to have a chat with the technician and ask questions,like "Will I live?" or "Boy or girl?" as he was scanning though, because he didn't want my chest moving and getting in the way of his sharp pictures.

He didn't even ask me if I was going anywhere nice on my holidays.

The next wait will be for the GP who ordered the scans to be done to see the results. Then hopefully, at some stage, someone will finally tell me what it all means.

But don't tell my brain there's something else to wait for, otherwise it'll down tools until that happens too.