In past whenever the vampires from the blood bank would show up at my school or work I'd make it a point to go out and give a pint or two (I've got more than enough) and never had any problem... until ~18 months ago when I felt unbelievably light headed and broke into a light cold sweat during one particular blood letting.

A similar thing happened two months ago when I gave six vials for some rheumatological tests... and today the same thing happened for only three. This time though it was far worse than before and after commenting on it to the nurse it only got worse, so bad that I could hardly see and was on the verge of passing out. In response they rushed me a drink of ice water and had me lay down on a bed that was wheeled up and then wheeled into the scan room not moments later.

I actually suspect (but never asked) that I did pass out as the amount of time between me mentioning how bad I was feeling and the bed and water showing up was very short.

After the blood tests and about 3 minutes of laying down I was fine and so we began the bone scan.

To begin they injected me with a radio active isotope with a half-life of ~55 hours and watched on the scanner as it passed through my blood stream into my hands. Next, so as to give it a chance to bond with the bones, they told me to come back in an hour when they'd do the hand ones again as well as a full body scan:

(note the trauma visible on my head suffered at an early age due to years of being dropped on my head (I am 6'4" and the machine is designed for people up to 6'2"))

This body scan was only slightly better (and less boring) than the MRI as it required me laying perfectly still in a cramped area (at least when it was scanning my head and chest) and was unable to even listen to my iPod.

While the body scan wasn't very telling (at least as far as the technician was concerned), the hand and wrist scans (which I didn't get a copy of) did something that no previous test has done... shown something not quite ordinary, a brighter patch on the back of both of my palms.

Unfortunately the regular Nuclear Medicine doctor was on vacation for two weeks, so instead of getting a verdict from him 10 minutes after the scan, the shots were going to be sent off to Minneapolis where it would likely take a day or two for them to get back to neurologist #3 who then would have to get back to me.

So the waiting begins again. Here's hoping that what the technician and I saw is something real, relevant and diagnosable.

Read the complete post at http://ihatelinux.blogspot.com/2007/09/bone-scan.html