Monday, 7 December 2020 ~ Cassandra's DTPA Renal Scan

Cass did a DTPA renal scan at HKL today. For the first time, we needn't have to camp there the entire day. Waiting time was 5 hours, which is considered very fast at HKL. We reached HKL at 8 a.m. and left the hospital at 2-ish p.m.  The renal nuclear scan lasted an hour. Thank God everything went pretty smoothly today. But the report will only be ready in a week's time and my next appointment to see the head of Urology is in early February 2021.  Hopefully we'll be given an earlier date to see the doctor.  

Though we've spent almost the entire year in home quarantine this year, it's nevertheless a blessing in disguise for Cass. Had there been no lockdown, Cass would have to skip school several times and may even need to skip a few major exams to undergo all the diagnostic tests at HKL. With HKL, if you postpone a given appointment, you may have to wait for months for another!  In summary, these are the diagnostic tests that Cass did this year:

1.  MRU 

2.  Cystoscopy 

3.  DTPA renal scan

4.  Ultrasound scan of her kidneys

5.  Several rounds of blood and urine tests

I hope that this will be the last invasive diagnostic test that Cass has to go through and her surgeon will be able to diagnose and tell us how she intends to perform the surgery to fix the issue 🙏. It appears to be a complicated problem (finding the root is perhaps like finding a needle in a haystack) and I pray to God for His direction and intervention in resolving Cass' issue soonest.

This is the waiting room for all the patients injected with nuclear medicine with radiation. They were all waiting for their turns to do their scans. 

 

Some of these patients had to go to IJN for a heart scan and some were redirected to the Cancer Society.  Accompanying relatives/friends were advised to wait outside the room as the waiting room has circulating radiation.  There's even a separate toilet for 'radiation patients' to use.

I killed time by walking up and down the corridor for more than an hour (again!).  This is the only way I can clock in a minimum of 7k steps on a hospital visit day where I have to skip my morning exercise. I walked back and forth the corridor outside the OT for more than an hour when Cass did a Cystoscopy last month.  So to those of you who always say that you have no time for exercise - you can still do it if you are determined.  If there's a will, there's always a way 😉💪

This is Cass after the procedure, waiting for the IV catheter to be removed. She had to wear this oversized hospital pants meant for an adult as her denim skirt has a metal button sewn on it.  All metal accessories and clothing must be removed for the DTPA scan.  This stubborn girl was in a terrible foul mood this morning and refused to listen to my advise to her to wear a shift dress 😠