Strike Three

by Duf Anything and Everything

So yesterday I found myself getting increasingly angry at the med center here as they still had not gotten back to me with my CT results.  I had called Tuesday afternoon and was told they had the results but they had not been reviewed yet.  So roughly 24 hours later nobody from the clinic had reached out to me to let me know what the hell was going on.  I was just about ready to march over there and make a large stink about it when my office phone finally rang.

The cliff notes version of the results are nothing significant was discovered.  The long version of the findings are below.

CT SCAN OF ABDOMEN AND PELVIS WITH AND WITHOUT CONTRAST

History: Right lower abdominal pain.

Technique: Helical acquisition was taken from the domes of the
diaphragms to the symphysis pubis before and after intravenous
administration of Omnipaque-300 75 ml, nonionic, iodinated contrast
agent. The axial source image data set was post processed by the
technologist with the consequent creation of reformatted images in the
coronal and sagittal planes. All CT scans are performed using radiation
dose reduction techniques. Technical factors are evaluated and adjusted
to ensure appropriate moderation of exposure.

Findings: The study is performed. Basilar foci of hypoventilatory
changes are noted. There is an area of chronic scarring associated with
a thoracic spur right base. The liver, spleen, adrenals and kidneys are
unremarkable. A 2 mm calculus mid to lower pole left kidney. No
hydronephrosis. The bladder and prostate are unremarkable. No
inflammatory process in the right lower quadrant. No soft tissue mass
is seen. Small bowel loops are decompressed. No gross lytic or blastic
bony lesions are seen.

Impression:

1. No significant abnormalities are noted.
2. There is a 2 mm nonobstructive calculus in the left kidney mid to
lower pole.
3. No other significant findings are seen.

The kidney thing is likely a small stone but it’s on the other side and is too small to cause any issue.  The scarring has to do with a bone spur which is not unusual for someone my age. Again, it doesn’t really match the symptoms.

So once again, like my blood tests, and xray,  the absence of a clue in the CT results left me feeling frustrated.  I have a follow up appointment at the clinic on Monday to discuss options from here.  My fatigue is not as severe as it was but I still am definitely not feeling normal.

I’m not really sure where this will go from here but I’ll just keep pressing on, it’s the only way I know.

Yesterday we found out have had a large adult black bear visiting the house nearly every night for over a month and a half, a new pet.