Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2005. That weekend we took Mattie to Bunnyland at Butler's Orchard in Maryland. We loved this farm and appreciated their fall and spring festivals. At Bunnyland, Mattie got to hunt for Easter eggs, go on a wagon ride, and participate in many other fun activities. It was a time to remember. I am so glad that Peter snapped a photo of us in front of this bunny made of hay.
Quote of the day: Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn’t know possible. ~ Tia Walker
The tech was lovely! However, as soon as the machine went on, I remembered all the CT scans with Mattie. He was deathly afraid of this device. I remember I would tell him the machine was like a race track. You can actually see something rotating around the ring, and if you try to imagine a mini race car speeding around you, it does help pass the time. Or it did with Mattie. In either case while in the machine, I remembered the racing car story I used to tell Mattie. I went through that narrative in my head, but I also reflected on a graver one. After all, it was doing a CT scan of Mattie lungs, that we learned that his cancer was in all of his limbs. Something we weren't prepared to find out and frankly any time you do an assessment, just about anything can be discovered. Life can change instantly with just ONE TEST. I literally had to calm myself down while in this machine, because I have to remind myself that not every test produces a death sentence. It takes a lot of discipline not to fly off the handle with testing, given my experiences with Mattie.
In any case, a cardiac CT scan for coronary calcium is a non-invasive way of obtaining information about the presence, location and extent of calcified plaque in the coronary arteries—the vessels that supply oxygen-containing blood to the heart muscle. Calcified plaque results when there is a build-up of fat and other substances under the inner layer of the artery. This material can calcify which signals the presence of atherosclerosis, a disease of the vessel wall, also called coronary artery disease (CAD). People with this disease have an increased risk for heart attacks. In addition, over time, progression of plaque build up can narrow the arteries or even close off blood flow to the heart. The result may be chest pain or a heart attack.
Because calcium is a marker of CAD, the amount of calcium detected on a cardiac CT scan is a helpful prognostic tool. The findings on cardiac CT are expressed as a calcium score. Thankfully my calcium score was ZERO! Which indicates no calcification within the coronary arteries. The chance of having a heart attack over the next two to five years is very low under these circumstances. One blessing for the week or year!
When I got home from the hospital, I answered a few emails and then took Sunny for a walk. After the walk, I took my parents out to lunch. They are both under the weather today from their second COVID booster shot. My mom feels exhausted and my dad has an extreme bout of diarrhea. I have been changing him all day. Finally tonight I gave up, and administered Imodium. I use this rarely with my dad, as Imodium caused him to get an impacted colon, which required hospitalization in 2020. But I am afraid he will get dehydrated otherwise, especially since he is on a diuretic.
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