Yesterday, I had a bone density scan, to ascertain how dense I am. Or how dense my bones are, anyway.
This is because my new anti-cancer pill, Letrozole, has an annoying tendency (known as a ‘side effect’, I believe) ot thinning your bones. So they are checking to see whether it is doing that to me.
And if it is? Apparently, I may have to eat more cheese. Result. I love cheese. Will this mean I can get it on (free) presecription? Here’s hoping. I would also be well-advised to do more weight-bearing exercise. At my size, I am tempted to think that all exercise is weight-bearing, but I don’t think I’ll get away with that. In any case, I am already a weight-pumping gym user, albeit of a rather leisurely kind.
Anyway, here’s how it went. I checked in at Homerton Hospital X-Ray 2, and the receptionist told me to sit in either waiting room. What?! How do I make a decision like that? I wasn’t expecting to have to decide between two waiting rooms in which to sit! My washing machine brain went into spin cycle, running through the various factors involved in this decision. Which looks the most comfortable? In which one am I less likely to not hear when I am being called? Which of the two has the least distracting distractions? Which affords the opportunity to sit in a place which makes a symmetrical pattern with the rest of the room that is least likely to be disturbed by other people sitting down? Can’t I just standup in between them gawping rather than making an actual decision? I was still doing the latter when the radiographer appeared and called my name. Thank the gods. I had averted having to make a decision.
Said radiographer was a very nice young man called Rob. So nice that when he asked me the compulsory question, ‘Do you suffer from chronic malnutrition?’, he didn’t even raise his eyebrows, let alone laugh uproariously. Questions aside, the scan involved lying down on a nice comfortable bed, top half gowned, lower half dressed, metal stuff removed from pockets. And that was pretty much it. A scanning arm buzzed above me, my lie was adjusted a couple of times, and within ten minutes, my lower back and both hips had been scanned.
The scan will now be analysed, and I will get the result from my GP shortly. I have to say, though, that my hips looked great on the screen. And, you know, the hips don’t lie …
