Hello to everyone!
I thought this would be a good thread to post this bit in.

Yesterday, I had a 'Bone Scan'.
Since I recently changed doctors, the new one. An Internist, wanted some new info.
I was assured that it's now less than a CT scan's worth of radiation.
I went, was injected (with the radioactivity), then was released for two hours.*
Had lunch, came back, they had a nice lounge where I could adjust the lights and the tv.

The tech. Was Ultra Knowledgable!
She asked some very pertinent questions, and knew what rsd, tos, tbi and all those kind of things not only stood for, but What they were, and how they effected us!

On to the test, I was to take all metals out of my pockets, but was able to leave on my jeans with their rivets. An ultra modern machine. I was asked to lay on a curved stainless steel 'tray', that was cover with that 'crinkly' paper. But, I only had on a t shirt,, and my arms were able to touch the SS. Agony within a minute, because it felt cold! The tech wrapped me in a blanket, and tucked it under my arms. Then, there's a scanner above me, somewhere between 20x20 to 25x25, which she assured me, would never touch me. There was an X on the center of it.
She was about to start the test, and said OK, don't move. Instantly Ya'll know what happens, you get an itch on your face, or somewhere. I'm trying to blow air up to where it itched, and no luck. Well I had not heard a sound, yet. So, I took the chance, and scratched it. There goes the noisy paper, and I get 'corrected', kindly. The whole test only took 20 minutes. I heard nothing, and no sense of motion. Finally I see some fixtures on the ceiling, coming slowly into view. Then I noticed, I don't know if all are like this, but a breathe half a dozen times normally, then take a bigger breathe. That scanner was down to within 1\2" of me, and on that larger breath, it actually moved up and down with my diaphragm! Weird, so I had to test it again! Yep!
Then, at the end, the worst. I had to turn my head to one side, for four minutes. I'm still not right today, my neck and arm are so painful! Oh well.
I was able to get a good look at the monitor which isn't nearly as clean as the film, but, what I saw was annoying. I looked like a Blood Angel, my entire scapula and thoracic spine were BLACK, (the monitor is a negative), the spots which I figured were green stick breaks on three ribs. (Besides the two horrible auto accidents, I was assaulted last Dec. Knocked down from behind and kicked repeatedly), therefore the rib breaks.

Well, I'm not a doctor, nor do I have any training in reading these things, but I had a bone scan about 25 years ago, when my TOS / RSD pain was centered between my shoulder in my spine, and that are lit up! The doc kept telling me, no that's nothing! I kept pointing to it and saying that's' it! Now, I know when a doc says 'that's nothing', it means, that's nothing I can fix!

*One last suggestion, if you live anywhere where you can get to a local 'imaging' center, they usually have 'Open' MRI's' do sleep studies, and are very patient oriented, (unlike hospitals for outpatients), I highly suggest you use one of these!
You'll be a lot more comfortable than in an out patient hospital setting....


All be well!
Don't let the pain 'become you'!

Pete