Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Marfan Life, Another Iodine CT Scan Today, Flagler Hospital, St Augustine

Flagler Hospital hospital is just twenty minutes north up US 1.  Today I'll be having another Cardiac and Abdominal CT Scan.

So I wrote a haiku for myself.

super hero's cloak
won't stay tied and so so cold,
blue hospital gown


 Those flimsy blue hospital gowns are just plain unstylish.  Being so tall they never fit me right anyway and make one feel, as Miami Herald humor writer says, "more naked than nakeed".

But I always worry how the iodine dye they use to get better contrast on the CT scan, will do to  my kidneys.  Yes, I do probably worry more than others, but that is my nature.  It doesn't help though that Judy's parents have some friends, one of whom just passed away from iodine dye invoked kidney failure. 

Looking, on the bright side, the cardiologist will, after today's test, be able to tell if my descending aortas dissection has stabilized, shrunk or (gasp) grown in size.

I don't like to think about it growing in size because I don't like to think about bad things and I don't really want to go through another surgery so soon.

There is a medication that I read last night about, called N-acetylcysteine and supposed a twenty five cent 500mg tablet can protect the kidneys from potential dye damage.  I am definitely going to ask about this drug today.  There is also a very interesting on the potentially life saving drug in the National Review of Medicine from a couple years ago, which you can access here.

Updates tomorrow.  In the meantime, I hope the Hospital Gown stays tied today!

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