4:40pm. Rugby St Cross Hospital X-Ray Department. The CT scan.
Lesley stays in the waiting area. I get into a gown and a medic inserts a canula in my arm for a dye injection into my bloodstream. The experience is a novelty.
I lie on a bed which carries me in and out of the scanner. After a couple of test runs the die is injected into my bloodstream and a warm feeling fills my body. I am moved gently into and out of the scanner which makes a sound like a very polite and gentle washing machine. A voice tells me when to breathe in and out. Of all the processes of diagnosis and treatment, this must surely be the most pleasant!!
I have just reread White Bicycles, a book of memoirs of the 1960s counterculture by record producer and executive Joe Boyd. He was there or had contacts with many of the underground, experimental rock and folk musicians of the 60s and 70s.
It’s a fantastic read. But I wonder how much some of his clients would have paid for an experience where an injection gave you a lovely warm feeling while you float effortlessly on a bed in and out of a machine making the sounds of the Taj Mahal Travellers improv group in a relaxed low intensity phase while a voice asks you to focus on your breathing!! Way out, man.
There are no results for a while as they will go to the consultant. Under instructions from Mr Lao I put the possibility of results out of my mind and go home. My head I nevertheless not focussed so I have to postpone an intended phone call. The other person is the personification of understanding (as always) and a new time will be scheduled.
Forget the Rules 