Bkprbob's Blog

The 20th of October was my 53rd birthday. The celebration of my birthday took place over a few days. My parents took my brother and I out to eat as has been customary for the last several years as we both have birthdays in October. His is on the 11th and that was the day we went out. We ate at a place called Ethyl's in O'Fallon. I had some delicious BBQ pork.

The evening before my birthday my wife and daughter took me out for dinner. We ate at the Olive Garden. I had a couple bowls of salad and I had chicken in an apricot glaze with vegetables. We had a nice evening. It was nice to see our daughter as we don't see much of her anymore as she is busy with work and then is often out with friends and her new boyfriend.

The day of my birthday was a nice sunny day outside. It was a work day so I spent much of the day at work but we did celebrate with a lunch for all October birthdays. We enjoyed grilled hot dogs, potato salad, chips, cookies, and cake. When I got home my wife made nachos and margaritas. Our daughter was home for a little while that evening but left. Rita and I then had a quiet evening together.

I had to get up early on the 15th because I had to give myself an enema to prepare for the CT and MRI. It is not a very pleasant way to start the day. When that was finished I showered, dressed and headed to the medical building. I was a little early so I went to the waiting room. When a nurse came to get me I was told to go and try to empty myself further and then drink 12 ounces of water. When that was done I was taken to the CT room. They put a prop under my knees and had me put my feet in some foam rubber looking stuff so they could make a mold. Once that was made they got me lined up on the table and proceeded with the scan. I think it was about 10 minutes and they moved me out of the machine and then put a catheter in me. Ouch! Once that was in they did another scan of about the same length and then they brought me out of the machine and took out the catheter.

I was sent to the hospital which is right next to the medical building for the MRI. I filled out a form and then was taken to a room to put a gown on. I was then taken to the MRI room and the mold that was made for the CT scans was there. I was told I had to either wear ear plugs or headphones with music. I chose music with classic rock. Once they got me situated on the table they gave me a button to hold on to and press if I needed to get out of the machine as they would not be able to hear me over the noise the machine makes. The table moved into the machine to where I could barely see outside of it if I tilted my head a bit. I had my hands folded on my chest and if I would have raised a hand vertical I would have probably have only had a few inches between my finger tips and the machine. It was very noisey. I could barely hear the music. I closed my eyes off and on to try to avoid seeing the cramped space I was in. I tried to concentrate on the music but actually found it more relaxing to concentrate on the rhythm of the noise the machine made. The table finally started to move out and they said they could see my bladder was getting full so they let me go to the bathroom. I did so and then they put me back in for more scanning. They offered me the panic button but I didn't take it. The second scan didn't seem as long as the first. I think I was in there a little over a half hour total. I got dressed and headed home.

I fixed myself some lunch and walked the dog. I wanted to relax a bit before heading to work. The half day at work went by fairly quickly. I spent most of my time working with the returned medications.

Next it was time to head for my parent's house. It was my fathers 81st birthday. I met my wife at a fast food chicken place near their house and we ate together and then went on to their house. Just before we left it started to rain. It started to rain hard shortly after we got there so we timed that pretty good. My 2 brothers were there and we gave dad our cards and gifts and then had strawberry shortcaked to eat. We watched the beginning of the baseball game on TV but it started to rain in St. Louis so they covered the field. My mother had a computer question so I went to the computer room to work on that. She also had some questions about the CyberKnife so I showed her and my dad the Accuray site and we watched a video about it. I think it helped them a lot to see the video.

We went back into the living room and my one brother had started to watch a show as the ballgame was still in rain delay. We chatted for a while and then headed home. It was a long day and it was good to be home.

Today was my wife's 49th birthday.

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