The Space Suit

Monday morning

About few months ago I had this very strange dream. I decided it came from watching the movie "Gravity" twice in one weekend, because in the dream I was in a space suit, holding on to joystick-type handles, my face looking through a mask. But this space suit was really weird, and I could feel an odd suctioning on my boobs, as if I was hooked up to a breast pump.

Fast forward….

I had to drive to the other side of the city to have this special breast MRI done. I've had MRI's before and they're not really that big of deal. I was told this one would take 45 minutes and I would have contrast dye that would make anything else in my boobs light up, including possibly lymph nodes where the cancer may have spread. Er…something like that.

The tech took me back. It was really early in the morning and the place was totally empty. Like, NOBODY was around! She handed me two gowns and I removed everything except my socks and panties as I was told, then she brought me back to the lab area.

First step was to start an IV. They first do the scans without dye, then with dye. Once the IV was in place we went into the procedure room with the machine.

Oh my word, the machine!!!!!!!

When I looked at the table I wondered how I would get up onto it. It was at a very odd angle, then I realized why. You have to climb up onto the thing, and hang your boobs through two holes. (one hole for each boob. ) No really. I am not even kidding a little bit. Heres how it looks when you lay down:

I was lucky, I was given handles thingies to hold, just like in my space dream! But do you see the person in the drawing, and where her boobs are hanging? Yeah, it takes a bit to get them positioned just right, with the tech doing lots of rearranging of boobs to get all the tissue into the right area so it shows up on the scan. Lots of moving and manipulating of my boobs going on. My friend L, who is living with breast cancer, told me "Say goodbye to your modesty. It only gets worse from here." Lovely! So anyway, all the that moving of my boobs was pretty uncomfortable because I was still sore and bruised from the biopsies. Then the tech put headphones on me so I could listen to a local radio station morning show. (She let me choose what I wanted to listen to.) But really, it was barely loud enough to hear because MRI machines are so loud. She also put a pulse oximeter on my finger. 

Loud, continuous noises don't really bother me, and I will take any opportunity for a nap, so since I was face down with my head in a mask just like my dream,  I drooled my way through the MRI. 

At one point the tech said into the headphones that she was starting the contrast dye and I might feel……  Yeah I fell back to sleep so I don't know what I was supposed to feel.

Eventually I felt someone tapping me, "Leah? Are you ok????" 

Good thing for that pulse ox or she probably would have thought I'd died or something. No. Just me, taking a nap. 

The tech helped me climb myself and my boobs out of the contraption and had me sit on the side of the table for a few minutes because she thought I looked dizzy. I wasn't, I was just groggy from my nap! LOL Now it was time to race home for Dean to get to work on time. Later I would be picking him up and we would go together for the consult with my physicians who I hadn't yet met.