Before anyone says it, I saw my doc this afternoon.
I’ve had a headache for about four days now. It feels like someone hit me in the back of the head with a board and what started out as flashes of sudden pain every now in then, increased to frequent flashes of pain and is now a dull throb at the back of my head. No problems with vision, no nausea, no sensitivity to light or sound. The past two nights, the pain has actually awoken me at night, which concerns me because I sleep like the dead. (I slept though most of my labor with Hallgirl2.) I had some dizziness on Friday, but it went away for the most part, and today when I was at the doc’s office, he had me stand and shut my eyes to test my balance. I would have fallen flat on my face had he not been standing there, so obviously I’m having a bit of balance problems. He ordered some blood work, and ordered a CT scan, which is scheduled first thing in the morning. His parting words were, “If it gets worse, then have someone take you to the Emergency room!” Um, thanks, doc.
Here’s the thing…I’ve never had a CT scan. They told me nothing to eat or drink for 4 hours prior to the scan (which shouldn’t be difficult since it’s for 8:00 am), but is there anything else I should do or not do between now and then? How long should it take? How soon should they have the results? Is it something that someone looks at right then and there, or is it something that has to be read by a professional (and which professional would that be? my doc is just a GP), or what is the “standard” procedure for the results?
I know I should have asked these questions when I had my docs attention, but honestly, I didn’t really think about it then. My doc is real laid back and all the years I’ve seen him, I’ve never seen him as “aggressively engaged” or concerned as he was today, and I have to admit, it threw me a bit. (Of course, a part of me thinks if he was that concerned, he would have immediately sent me over the the CT scan instead of waiting for it…)
In the mean time, I’m trying to stay away from Web MD…
I had an abdominal scan last year. I had to have an intravenous dye put in just before the procedure, but I don’t think that would apply in your case. My procedure took half an hour or so. The scan was read there and the results were sent to my doctor. It took a few days to get them back.
Warning: The SOP with which I am familiar may not apply at your medical facility.
Our CTs are read the same day by a radiologist, a physician who makes his living by interpreting such tests.
If something is noted on the CT which could be acutely life or health-threatening, the radiologist will make every effort to contact the ordering doc immediately, so that said doc can contact the patient and make arrangements.
If the abnormality is not so critical or urgent, messages may be left, or the report just sent over via normal channels, which could take only minutes in the case of electronic medical info transmission, or day if everyone involved is still using ‘paper’.
About all you can do is relax and observe the instructions not to eat or drink beforehand. There’s a good chance you’ll get “contrast” which is an injection / IV of radio-opaque “dye*” so they can get a good look at blood vessels in your brain. It will feel realy wierd going in - when I had it, it felt like cold crawling up my arm until it reached the shoulder and poured into my body. Then I felt really queasy for a moment - this is why they want your stomach empty.
Other than that, CT scans are reasonably pleasant, as medical tests go. Unlike MRIs, they’re comparatively silent and you don’t feel like you’re being stuffed into a torpedo launch tube.
As for the timing of when your doc will get the results, the images will probably be read by a radiologist within a couple of hours. If your doc had sent you in for a “stat” CT today, they’d probably be working on the report by the time you had your clothes back on.
The MRI is noisy, but they gave me headphones with music during mine. Nothing to it other than the noise, mine took quite a bit longer than the CT scan, they ran me in and out 2 or 3 times IIRC.
Dunno whether to hope they find what’s ailing you, or they find nothing whatsoever (I had a CAT scan years ago for sinus problems and was rather humiliated to hear that they’d X-rayed my head and found “nothing”. “Unremarkable” was the word on the report, I believe… :D)
I had a CT scan on my head once to see if there was a cause for the migraines I used to get.
For the most part it wasn’t too bad, at first. They didn’t want me to move which was fine for the first run. Then they gave me the dye. Before they gave me the dye I was asked if I was alergic to fish or strawberries - which I am not. Within seconds of being injected with teh dye I broke out in hives everywhere. I swear I was itching for at least 3 days after. Being in such a state while strapped down and being unable to move is as close to torture that I ever want to get.
I’ve had both an MRI of my head and a CT scan of my whole torso for my heart, with no great problem with either. All the MRI found was a sinus infection; the doctor said it found nothing else. For the CT scan, the tech said the contrast would cause a warm feeling, which it did, and the radiologist gave me a tour of my innards. (He told me I have a ‘bicuspid valve’, so I replied that if he was going to make me a bivalve, I’d just clam up and leave. He laughed, even though he must have heard it before.)
The only thing I’d warn you about with an MRI, well, I suppose two things: it will be noisy and it will be a bit more claustrophobic than the CT scanner. You’ll make it through though, and then it’ll be over. I’ve never been offered music, but I’ve had tons of people tell me they were. Good luck!
-Lil
Thanks all. Since it’s an MRI of my brain (apparently there IS something in my head afterall!), then I doubt that I’ll get headphones. I surely hope it doesn’t take long enough to need music though.
Now I can honestly say, “Why, yes, I HAVE had my head examined!”