Baseline Testing Day 2

I was up early this morning to go to the hospital for more study testing.  I got there at 6:30.  First stop was radiology for a CT scan.  They scanned at my belly button and mid-thigh. 

After the CT scan it was time for more bloodwork.  They drew some blood to start off with, and then I got to eat a liquid meal (a chocolate Carnation instant breakfast).  Then over four hours they drew blood every five minutes, then every ten minutes and then every thirty minutes.  I wasn't allowed to eat anything during these four hours.  My veins gave them trouble again.  The first IV they had in my left wrist.  It eventually got clogged.  They could get blood out, but couldn't flush the line.  So they moved on the the right arm and it was fine after that. 

They had me fill out a quality of life questionnaire.  Full of all sorts of questions about my occupation, activity level, happiness level.  There were also questions about my eating habits, if I ever restricted calories to lose weight, if I overate in certain situations (when depressed, angry, bored, at a party, etc).  I was done with that test around noon.  At that point I was starving and a dog food commercial on tv had me salivating.  The nurse brought in a tray of food and said, "here's your breakfast, hold on just a second and I'll bring your lunch."  People, they brought me TWO huge trays of food.  Here are some pics of both:

The breakfast included:

pancakes 

scrambled eggs 

bacon 

sausage 

grits 

cheerios 

banana 

yogurt 

apple juice 

orange juice 

some other kind of juice 

milk 

coffee

Lunch consisted of:

 roast beef with gravy 

cornbread 

mashed potatoes 

carrots 

black eyed peas (with one green bean among them) 

chicken noodle soup 

cake 

sweet tea 

a pepsi

I asked them if they expected me to eat all of that food.  The nurse told me to east as much as I could and then I could take whatever I didn't eat home with me.  I came nowhere close to finishing it all.  At first I got suspicious and thought maybe it was a test to see how much of it I would eat, considering all of the overeating questions that were on the forms I had to fill out.  Maybe they were just making up for not letting me eat for 18 hours (had to start fasting the night before at 6:30.  Who knows?

So after that, I had to go to another building in the hospital to have a DEXA scan done.  It's a scan that shows bone density along with body composition.  That took about five minutes where I had to lie completely still.  Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I have had a cough for a couple of weeks now that just won't go away.

Speaking of the cough, I had an appt with my doctor after all of this testing.  Like I said, I've had this cough that won't leave.  I went to see my doctor that I see for my asthma.  I did a pulmonary function test which made a coughing fit start.  She listened to my lungs.  I was actually running a low-grade fever while there and she said that she was worried about pneumonia so she was going to treat this aggressively.  So I'm on another round of antibiotics (had a z-pack a few weeks ago) and also now on steroids.  I have to use my rescue inhaler every 4-6 hours for the next few days.  I'll be so glad when this crap is gone.  

Tomorrow is my last day of eating the food that I want.  Thursday starts the study.  I'm going in around 7:00 in the morning to pick up my food.  Since I live about 30 miles away from where I work I'll have to take the food I get and keep it in the work refrigerator.  (It will be enough food to last me until Monday).  I'll definitely be back to update about what kind of food I get!