Where I am today.

Now the 11th of December and having been back at work a week or so my blood pressure isn't too bad.  After leaving hospital I booked an appointment with my GP who signed me off work for a further 4 weeks giving me time to relax and hopefully get better, although I never actually felt bad.  Over the next few weeks I check and record my blood pressure in the evening and also take note any other exceptions of which there are none really but just note things like 'return to work tomorrow' etc.

I have received 2 letter over the last few weeks from the hospital both about follow up appointments.  One is for the initial eye problem and that's booked for 27 December and the other was for the MRA they promised me which was booked for 7 December which was last Friday.  My appointment was for 1:45pm but arrive 15 minutes early to do any paperwork etc.

I arrive around 1:15 pm and the paperwork is minimal and I am directed to a waiting area for MRI and CT scans.  People come and go and then I am called in.  I am taken to a lobby area which has some lockers and 2 doors, 1 of which leads to the MRI scanner room and the other the control room.  After some questions and changing out of my jeans I am taken into the scanner room.  I lay down and and asked some questions about asthma and allergies etc as they wil need to inject me halfway through the scan.  They put a cannula in my right arm and prepare me my putting a receiver pad over my kidney area and some other general shielding over my legs and upper chest.  They say we are ready and ask if I'm ok....  They give me some headphones as they need to get me to hold my breath at certain times and also a panic button just in case.   I am then fed into the machine and the procedure starts.

I am not going to beat around the bush here but I was ok until i opened my eyes which was when i realised how close around me the machine was.  I closed my eyes and just followed the instructions given and stayed calm.  I can see however if you really didn't like enclosed spaces then this would be a very difficult thing to have done.  The one thing I can say is keep your eyes closed and relax.  Before long it was done and I was pulled out od the machine.  I actually felt a little light headed getting up but to be honest I just wanted to get on with the day and go home.  I got changed again and made my way out.

As i said above I check my blood pressure pretty much every evening at the moment and it's looking ok, last night it was 124/62 which is good.  I am of course on medication still but am awaiting an outpatients appointment with my consultant who will hopefully say all my tests have been fine and change my drugs around a little.