Yesterday I went and had an ultrasound. At my preliminary walkaround and tire-kicking, the doc observed that my thyroid seemed a bit large and my gall bladder a bit tender. So she wanted ultrasounds to check those out. And as long as they were looking, they also had a peer at my liver, kidneys, spleen, and who knows what else.
Getting an ultrasound when not pregnant is an entirely different thing from getting one while pregnant. When they’re just looking at the baby, they just glide the ultrasound sensor over your big, round belly. You’re well-insulated from the thing, and what they want to look at is protruding so much they can easily get the sensor at any angle they like.
Getting an ultrasound of your own internal organs is a little more… intimate. They press down quite firmly. They have you breathe deeply and hold your breath, to shift your organs down below your ribs where they can get at them. They dig in to try and get a better angle on the things.
Funny, before my first trip to the doctor I was barely aware I had a gall bladder, or a spleen. Now I know where they are and what they do.
The gall bladder is fine, but the spleen apparently looked questionable in some way that I didn’t quite understand when the nurse called me with the results while I was still half-awake. Something about it was probably caused by an infection and is likely nothing to worry about, but they want to have a CTI done.
And this morning I finally got the blood drawn for my ALCAT screening. Four vials. The nurse was very good at it, I barely felt the needle, but I still get squicked at the draining sensation of having a lot of blood drawn.
Now I have a two-week wait for those results. I hate waiting.