blondie073's Journal

My mom and I left for the hospital at 10:30 Friday night. We went to Sick Kids. We got to Emergency and waited for a little bit. We had just decided to move to the comfy chairs because there was a baby projectile vomitting next to us when they called my name. We got up and went to the nurse's triage room. I repeated my sad story of being shut in a door while she examined me and wrote everything down.
Then we were sent to the x-rays and waited in the waiting room there. After about an hour, they called everyone's names, as the clinic was closing. So we were put in a room with a bed and a few chairs, told to wait for the doctor.
We sat there for awhile, poking fun at the posters on the wall, until the first doctor came. He poked and prodded my ribs, squeezed both of my wrists, asked me some questions, then said he had to go consult his team. Then a nurse came in and poked and prodded me, handing me a container to pee in. Ew. She then left. After awhile, another doctor came in, and poked and prodded me again. She asked me the same questions then left. Then the first doctor came in and sent us down to the x-ray room.
I wasn't allowed to wear my bra because it had an underwire and I wasn't allowed to wear my jeans because of the metal on them. So I had to change into a hospital gown. They took two x-rays then made me wait outside for half an hour while they looked at the x-rays. Then they came out and said we needed to take another x-ray. So I was positioned again and waited while she took the x-ray.
I was finally allowed to change back into my clothes and they sent us back to Emergency to wait in Quiet Room 2. We sat there for a long time, reading and talking, for what seemed to be forever but turned out to be an hour. Then another doctor came in and told me an ultrasound wouldn't be able to help in my situation so I had to have a CT scan. A CT scan is when you lie on that bed and go into that tunnel and they take pictures.
A nurse came in and said I had to have an IV and they needed to take some blood, after I gave them the urine sample. So I handed them the urine sample and followed Nurse Becky to a room with beds and dividers. I used my teddy bear as a pillow as she prepared my arm for the IV. She told me to look away as she stuck the needle into a tiny vein in my hand. I thought it was out but then I felt her probing the vein with the needle. Then she said she was taking it out. I watched as the needle came out but the tube stayed in.
She taped the tube down, attaching a vile thing to the end, taping that down as well. She taped my whole wrist to a small pillow so I wouldn't move, then stuck a different sort of needle on the end to take my blood. I found out my blood is dark dark red, bordering on magenta. Because my wrists are tiny and my veins are small, she had to smack my hand a few times to get the blood flowing because it kept stopping. Then she had a vial of blood.
She took a little plastic half bubble covered in peace sign stickers and taped it to the top of the thing in my hand, which now had a tube sticking out the side of it. I couldn't move my hand without it hurting and I was upset. I had to take off all my jewellery, including a ring that hasn't come off in two years. It turns out I have a ring indent on my finger now.
We were sent back to the Quiet Room and waited for an hour. Finally a nurse came and said they were ready to do the CT scan. So we went upstairs and sat in the room with the huge machine. The lady doing the CT scan told me I had to take off my bra, and when she saw the intensly taped up hand of mine she took my bra off for me. Awkward. Then she made me lie down on the small bed and told me to pull down my pants to my knees so they wouldn't interfere with the machine. She covered me in a blanket and put the protective radiation pads on me.
I waited on the bed for over an hour while the doctor was 'coming'. He had to put the dye in my blood system before any tests could be done. He finally came and stuck a tube into the IV tube in my hand. I felt warmth rush through all my veins and I suddenly felt very heavy and sick. Then the machine started whirring and I was told to hold my breath by the machine. We took a few tests and I was done.
We were sent back down the the Quiet Room and I felt really gross from the dye. I had realized awhile back that I hadn't eaten since 8pm on Friday, but everyone kept telling me I couldn't eat or drink anything. It was 5am and I was starving. I tried to read for awhile but gave up after an hour. My mom decided to get some sleep but I couldn't sleep in a chair.
At around 6:30am, the doctor came in and smiled sadly at me. She sat down in the third chair and looked at her clipboard.
"Okay, I'll start with the good news."
This is when I knew there was bad news.
"There is nothing wrong with Tiana's spleen. We had to call in a team of specialists to make sure the test results were normal."
Specialists? Uh-oh.
"However, the tests showed Tiana has a small mass on her kidney. It probably isn't cancerous but it's probably a tumor. Hopefully it won't grow but if it does we will need to operate. So Tiana must come back for an MRI and a few more tests to make sure it isn't fatal. We don't think it's a big deal but we need to be sure."
I. Have. A. Mass.
She told us to talk to my doctor about the pain in my side. Right. He was the one who said I sprained my shoulder. She also said to wait for a call from some team or another, I can't remember, and they'll arrange an appointment for my MRI.
So they found nothing wrong with me for the door injury, but they found a probable tumor that could kill me. Was the eleven hours at the hospital worth it? I'd say so. Even if I still feel sick from the dye.
As soon as I got home I went to bed. I slept from 9am to 3am and I just got up. I have the worst headache and my side still hurts. Now I have to worry about more tests and a possible biopsy and a possible surgery. Thanks, mom. I appreciate inheiriting the odd tumors from you.