Those X-ray Trips

Ever since I had the Coop Loop procedure, I had x-rays of my chest taken everyday, mostly twice a day. This is to show the progress of the bilateral pleural effusion. I didn't think it was necessary to be x-rayed twice a day, once should be enough. But, well... doctor's orders.

My bed is one of those newer ones with electronic controls, and although heavy, it moves along smoothly when pushed.

Since I was confined to bed, whenever I had to have an x-ray taken, my bed and I had to go together. As I was on oxygen, the staff had to disconnect my oxygen tube from the supply outlet mounted on the wall and re-connect it to a portable oxygen canister. In the x-ray room, I would be x-rayed in a sitting position on my bed with a board (film) sandwiched between my back and the top half of the bed.

Usually, a nurse and an attendant or porter would accompany me on such trips. I dreaded these trips because my bed would go scraping round the corridor corners and also go crashing through the lift doors, which admitted my bed with hardly any allowance on either side, and always the containers would be knocking into the lift doors, as they were hung in such a way that they protruded. From my ward to the x-ray unit, we would need to take two lifts, and we would usually be scraping all the way there and back.

The moment they started rolling my bed along, I would be gripping tightly onto both tubes. It was my own precautionary measure, in case the containers got knocked off, I didn't want the tubes to be ripped off my chest. I didn't know what the odds are of such a thing happening, but I wasn't taking any chances. Fortunately, the closest thing that happened was that sometimes the attached hook got dislodged and the staff had to fix it back.

The tapping of the fluid eased the pressure off my lungs and I found that sometimes I could go without oxygen for a short period of time. Sometimes, in order not to trouble the nurses, I would tell them to leave the oxygen. Until once, a nurse told me that patients with chest tubes and on oxygen must not be allowed to go without oxygen. I explained that it was my idea and she said that as nurses, they had to be firmed and she would be talking to her junior about that. She was right and I liked her attitude. I felt bad. Fortunately, nothing happened otherwise I would be getting some of them in trouble.