Next Step, Done

One step closer to radiation and more

This morning, Paul and I got up bright and early to head to the hospital for my myelogram and radiation simulation. Well, it wasn’t really “bright,” just early. And I woke up extra-early for good measure. I was awake at least an hour-and-a-half before my alarm went off (it went off at 5:00) and never went back to sleep (typical).

We arrived at the hospital at o’-dark-thirty and I was soon whisked away to Interventional Radiology for an exciting morning of … waiting around. For some reason, things moved more slowly than expected, but I was comfortable and I had my phone and glasses, so it was all fine.

After my last post, I heard from one of you that myelograms are like spinal taps, and that freaked me right out. The idea of having something akin to a spinal tap just about undid me, due to my understanding of the pain involved. My dad, who had a spinal tap a few months before he died, had confirmed my sense of the pain involved in a lumbar puncture, though from his description, it was at least mercifully brief.

Fortunately, the standard at Michigan Medicine is to use conscious sedation for this particular procedure. And my nurses this morning acted as if the bone marrow biopsy I had a year ago (for which I was also given conscious sedation) was a more difficult procedure than a myelogram.

Once I was finally taken back for the procedure, everything went fine. I could hear myself groaning a few times as they dug the needle into the space between my L2 and L3 to shoot the contrast into my spinal canal, but thankfully the combination of Versed and Fentanyl made me not care very much about the groaning or the cause of it. I could then feel the table tilting me in various directions to make sure the contrast would move into the right places in my spinal canal.

After that, I was taken to recovery and then a bit after that to radiation oncology where they set everything up to run the radiation simulations. I was done at roughly 12:30, about six hours after we’d arrived. We picked up a quick lunch on the way home - ah, it felt so good to eat after fasting for the procedure - and then I lay down on the couch, turned on Netflix, and slipped into a sedation-induced nap for the rest of the afternoon, with three little dogs all piled on top of me.

So far, I’ve been feeling good, with no spinal headache. I did develop a headache in the back left part of my head during the myelogram, and it moved into the front left over my eyebrow - which is where I have my migraines - when I was rolled from face-down to face-up - but by the time I was out of recovery, it was resolved and it hasn’t returned.

Paul was able to pick up my Votrient pills yesterday afternoon and I’m going to take my first dose tonight (I decided last night not to start a brand-new drug the night before having a brand-new procedure). I’m nervous about the side effects but eager and grateful to be back on systemic treatment.

At any rate, this next step in my multi-step attempt to move forward and get on top of things is now done, and I’m so glad!