Had a sonogram today

December 23, 2005

As part of the effort to diagnose what might be going on with my liver, I got a sonogram at the Norton Hospital this morning. Dr. Cecil wants to get scans of my liver and spleen.

First off, I was kinda surprised at how busy the hospital was that early in the morning. My appointment was for 8 a.m. and I had been instructed I would need to arrive about 30 minutes early to get thru all the paperwork and insurance approvals. So I was there at 7:30 a.m., and while the parking lot wasn’t full it wasn’t empty either. The front lot where I parked was maybe half full.

Inside the hospital, things looked fully staffed–doctors and nurses everywhere, and the little Starbucks stands inside each wing were all open. I know this because I entered from the wrong end of the hospital, so I had to walk the entire length to get to the admissions desk and thus passed several of the Starbucks kiosks along the way.

The admissions process was kinda cool–it’s all pretty much electronic, including me signing the consent forms on an electronic pad. Much like the one they have at a lot of stores, for signing your credit card transaction. In the entire process there was just one paper form, everything else was done electronically. Including scans of my ID and my insurance card. The insurance approval was also electronic–she just tapped a few keys and we got back an instant approval from the insurance company’s computer.

Now the sonogram is in the radiology department, which makes me a bit nervous because I didn’t think there was any radiation involved in a sonogram. I think maybe they just group these with the radiology stuff for convenience, since they’re similar purposes.

The woman who did my scan was ridiculously proud of the equipment. That’s what we chatted about while she was moving the little scanner around my abdomen. She just loves the Siemens sonogram equipment, says it’s the best and most reliable she’s used in the two-plus decades she’s been doing these. Though she said she is disappointed that the keyboard isn’t gel-proof. They smear this gel on your abdomen to help the sound waves penetrate the skin, and she had to be careful not to get any on the keyboard while she was taking the scans.

I was actually done by about 8:20 a.m. Should have the results to my doctor by middle next week.