08/15/11 Ok so yesterday I had a Muga heart scan The MUGA scan (Multiple Gated Acquisition scan) is a noninvasive test that produces a moving image of the heart. From this image, the health of the heart’s major pumping chamber (the left ventricle) can be assessed. A MUGA scan is performed by attaching a radioactive substance, Technetium 99, to red blood cells, then injecting the red blood cells into the patient’s bloodstream. (The level of radiation to which a patient is exposed during this test is considered minimal.) The patient is then placed under a special camera (a gamma camera), and with some fancy computer manipulation, a “movie” of the beating heart is made. From this moving image, the MUGA scan gives an accurate and reproducible way to measure the ejection fraction of the left ventricle. The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an excellent measure of overall cardiac function. The ejection fraction is simply the proportion of blood that is expelled from the ventricle with each heart beat. So, for instance, if the left ventricle ejects 60% of its blood volume with each beat, the LVEF is 0.6. (A normal LVEF is 0.5 or greater.) So Kris Gray went with me and we go back to the area where they are going to draw blood the first lady couldn't get the needle in the vein correctly even after blowing a vein on a second attempt and heating my hand with a warming bag. ..... .... this is the lady Kris and I didn't care for she was kind of grumpy and she blew my vein damn it ! the phone rings a lady in back calls out it's for her. The lady drawing my blood or attempting to draw my blood says it's actually for me and so she had to stop and let me up to go answer the phone. It was Marg from the Chemo Drug Study. Tellin me that they will do my EKG in between the Muga blood draw and the test and that she also got my blood work back good news! I'm premenopausal.... No shit really, I'm thinkin'. So, she tells me that I am acceptable for another part of the drug study which is just more blood draws. ok cool whatever, I get off the phone and start the blood draws again. ..... .... This time the second lady finds a good vein and we get the what she explained the glue like substance put into the blood stream. I had to wait 20 minutes before I got the radiation put into the blood stream, so I went and got my EKG done. I come back and they take me and Kris back to where they did the scan. So she tells me to lay flat on the table and I had to stay still for 10 minutes. HELLO, that's like tellin a infant to sit still. Come on now, it's me. OMG I had every itch and twitch once she told me she started uuugh so frustrating. but we got the testing done. THANK GOD! I'm hoping this third picture will work I took it as a video maybe it will come out here as a video but hoping for at least a picture, or both lol. Fingers crossed.





So Marg called me today and told me she got the EKG and MUGA results and everything is fine.
then she explained she randomized me to the Drug Study Computer and i will only recieve basic Chemo and I will get 6 rounds. Once, every 3 weeks. I'm not sure If I'm happy frustrated or sad aboutt his. When she called I cried cause it wasn't what the Dr. and I discussed as I remembered. I already feel I have lost control of what my choices are. i think I have just hit a over whelming wall and just began the frustration part. what kind of freaks me out is I haven't even started chemo yet.