For some reason I am sure will never be understood, I developed a horrible pain in the ear during the hours I spent at the lab. I even asked the doctor if there was any possibility that I might be having a weird allergic reaction to the contrast fluid. He said no. You iron brothers well know how low our pain sensibility is – we just don’t feel pain. But – wow – that was some ear ache. Besides, I was tired. It was a stressful week. So I allowed myself one tylox and some ear drops and went to bed quite early.
Saturday, February 16th, I woke up at 6:30AM and went to my tai-chi practice. I knew I wouldn’t hallucinate on dead body worms that day. I felt good and relaxed (a little deaf, though, which took about a week to go away). From there I went to my dermatologist for my skin treatment session and then downtown to have lunch with a friend. The friend is a biochemist and we chatted about my case over a couple of beers. I was in a very good mood.
I planned to get home and check the medical report on the net. As I logged in, I was notified that it was not available: I had to pick up both the image and the report at the facility. Something clicked inside me. The little “doubt devil” woke up with its “what if’s”. I decided to leave immediately and pick up the result. That was about 2:30PM – the lab closes at 6PM.
My daughter was around and asked me to go along. She wanted a ride to the subway station and she wanted to see the result with me. We had some stupid argument on the way and I just left her at the station.
“Why are you stopping here? Weren’t we picking up the result?” she asked
“I want to be alone. I’d rather read that stuff by myself”
She looked at me anxiously. She apologized for the argument and made me promise to call her with the result. I did and left. I turned off my cell phone to avoid the many calls from friends.
The subway station is close to the lab facility, but it took me hours (not true: 25 minutes at the most) to get there. I made all sorts of stupid mistakes and took wrong turns, until finally I got there. The building was almost empty. Just a couple of workers and myself. I handed one of them my ticket and he gave me a small, white envelope.
I felt hot, specially on the throat and eyes.
I asked the worker if that was all. I think I was disappointed with the size of the envelope.
I also asked for the CD and there was none.
When I had no more questions left to ask, I faced the envelope, sat down at a small table and opened it. Tough as I think I am, I have to admit my heart frequency increased. And there it was:
(if you can’t see the picture, click at http://www.bodystuff.org/cintilografiafev2008.jpg
The report expressed the physician’s perplexity. There were hot spots all over, osteogenic activity in all joints plus some “weird” extra locations, all of which make sense to a powerlifter: they are the sites of tension incidence during the lifts.
No cold spots – no AN. Just more and more medical puzzles, but I just looked at the image and smiled. I knew what those hot spots meant.
I breathed deeply and felt a sudden head-ache. I turned on my cell phone to keep Mel (my daughter) my promise. There were three calls from her. The girl was freaking out. I told her the news and went home, straight to bed.
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