I am a puker

I am a puker.  If there is the slightest chance that something has a side effect of puking, it's going to happen for me.  I vomited for almost my entire first airplane flight back in fifth grade.  In labor, when I started puking, the nurses said it was a good sign (I think they said that to anything at that point).  My latest experience was during my MRI today.  This MRI was just to get one more surveillance round in before the surgery.  It was a way to ease my anxiety so that I'd feel pretty certain that we know how the post-op pathology report will turn out.

I've had them before and never had a problem.  Today was very different.  I went through the usual procedure of scrubs and metal detector.  They place the iv to be use for the contrasting dye and pushed me in my superman-ish position into the machine.  I cranked the music up and the first half went just fine. 

The technician came on my headphones to say that she was injecting the dye.  I immediately felt like I'd peed my pants (I really didn't thankfully).  I then got this intense metallic taste in my mouth and proceeded to dry heave uncontrollably for what felt like forever, but was probably just 30 seconds. I said between pukes "I'm (blaaaagh) getting (blaaaagh) sick (blaaagh) in here."  The technician came on and said "Are you OK? Do you want to be pushed out?"  But almost as quickly as it hit me, the feelings went away and I was back to normal.  I knew that we'd have to do the whole thing over if we stopped, so I said I think I'm fine.  I just had to stay in there for rest of the 8 minute series with my spit and drool over my chin.  Before the next two really short series, I had some time to clean myself up a bit and reposition my face on the head pad to avoid spots where I thought I had messed up. 

After the scan was over, the technicians helped me out and checked me over for other signs of reaction to the dye.  No hives or dizziness, I was just fine.  I told them that a friend warned me that she reacted like this to her first one, but since my previous ones were fine, I didn't think it'd be a problem.  They said that they switch types of dye since my last one, so maybe that's the culprit. 

Now I'm just waiting to hear back for the doctor to find out if the pictures from my puking incident turned out.  If my movement ruined the shots, I'll have to go back later this week to retake these.  At least I know what to expect the second time.

Ironically, while I was in the middle of this, Aila was at home pretending that her stuffed bunny Rosebud had "the pukes." She put blankets for her on the floor and needed a puke bucket for which she used the back of her toy dump truck.  It makes me feel better to know that Rosebud and I were suffering together.