What I am learning, is the
bigger the surgery the more hoops one must jump through.
A few weeks ago I drove to
Miami to get my blood work for panel two testing using the Orthopedic Analysis
test kit. Insurance didn’t pay for it,
so I paid nearly $600 out of pocket for this test. The nurse took four vials of blood, put it in
the box, gave me the box, and I went to Fedex and shipped it to the
company.
is drawn the nurse seals it in another container within this box and hands it to you to bring
to FedEx to ship :)
I began patiently waiting for
the results, which I knew were going to tell the doctors I do not have
allergies to metals. I already had the
patch testing and have never had any problems in the past. Approximately one week later, the nurse called
and told me that I tested positive for being allergic to ALL the metals in the
kit. That means I am allergic to aluminum,
cobalt, chromium, iron, molybdenum, nickel, vanadium, zirconium, titanium alloy
particles, cobalt alloy particles, bone cement particles, and bone cement
liquid. The stunned company personally
called my surgeon’s office to discuss the results. No one has ever seen results like this, and
no one can explain how it happened. They
decided to send another test to my surgeon free of charge and I have to take it
again. Meanwhile, I can’t set a surgery
date without the results. Ugh. This is frustrating.
I felt like having a temper tantrum! lol
Last Tuesday I went and had
the test re-done. I am now anxiously waiting
for the results and praying everything turns out okay.
I also had to go for my CTA
of my face/neck and brain. A CTA is a
cat scan with iodine. I have never had
this kind of procedure before and had many questions. My good friend Kristy had one done on her
shoulder and she literally said, “The needle they used was this big (imagine
large hand gesture) and it left a hole in my shoulder.” Of course, I imagined a huge needle stabbing me in the face.
"The needle was this big"
I didn't take a picture of Kristy making the hand gesture, but it was the same one this really cute baby monkey was making!
Other people told me I would
taste something funny and to breath through my mouth. I really had not idea of what to expect. Last Saturday, I drove down to Miami and had
the procedure. Though I needed to be
there at 7:30 and they told me I wouldn’t be done until noon, everything went
rather smoothly. I waited longer to fill out paperwork and then again afterwards, than
the actual CTA took. It didn’t hurt, it
made me slightly warm for a few seconds, and I did not taste anything funny.
The actual CT Scan machine
The IV they put in my arm. At this point they have only flushed it with saline, when I went back for the scan, they hooked the end of it to the Iodine Machine (I'm sure it has a technical name, but I just don't know it)
Now it is just a waiting
game. I need the results from my allergy
test so that I can schedule the surgery.
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