Skip to main content

MUGa Heart Scan

The MUGa Scan was another scan where I was the radioactive one. The goal of this scan is to evaluate the condition of the heart. Before the scan started I was injected twice -- once with some sort of tin fluid and once with the actual radioactive stuff. For more details on the actual injections check out the Wikipedia article. Funny side note: the guy who gave me my first injection just happens to live in my building.

Again I had to lay on a table which moved up and into the scanning machine. The technician hooked me up to a bunch of electrodes. When he started the scan I just had to lay still, nothing to do, nowhere to go. I tried doing some relaxation breathing during the scan. I could see the read out of the electrodes, so I occasionally watched how my breath affected the reading.

Once the scan was over the technician was awesome enough to let me watch the video of my heart. All in all a very easy test with a bonus video at the end.


Test Ratings
Time Required [short, medium, long]:  short-medium (~45 minutes from arriving to leaving)
Pain Factor [0-10]:  1 (two small injections and a few adhesive electrodes)
Comfort Factor [0-10]:  9
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have Cancer Will Travel

Update (2013-03-06): I found a few nasty catches in a few policies that everyone needs to be aware of. Some policies will not cover you if you have ever had a bone marrow transplant. Some travel medical insurance policies will not cover you if you have ever been diagnosed with lung cancer or metastatic cancer. Some travel medical insurance policies will not cover you if you wind up having to have chemo between the date you purchased the policy and your date of departure. I came across one plan that requires you to inform the company if there is a change in a previously stable pre-existing condition before your date of departure. The company will then decide if they wish to continue to honour your insurance policy, whether that be for the travel medical portion of your policy (which makes some sense) or for the trip cancellation portion of your policy (seriously not cool). I will be writing a few reviews of policies in both Canada and the US, in order to give you all a feel f...
3 comments
Read more

FEC Tips

Last week I started the second half of my chemotherapy experience, with my first doses of docetaxel and Herceptin. Over the three cycles of FEC that I had, I learned quite a lot about how to manage my side effects. No doubt you have already read a number of tips for how to survive chemo (and FEC) with your sanity intact - if you haven't then check the forums at breastcancer.org - there are tons of tips there. Below are my personal must-do techniques while getting FEC.
4 comments
Read more

8-Wheeled Anti-Radiation Tomb and Other Radiation Skin Care Tips

The one side effect that everyone undergoing radiation therapy will experience is skin irritation and potential breakdown. Most people compare the skin reaction to a sunburn -- how bad of a sunburn will depend on a number of factors. Don't assume that having darker skin will protect you from the effect, you should still care for your skin as if you are the palest person you have ever seen.
Post a Comment
Read more