Ariel's Two Cents

 As you know, I have been working on getting all of my yearly Scleroderma tests done and taken care of.  It's not been easy for me to get these done with my extreme medical anxiety.  The most "normal" test will give me days and days of anxiety, even if I know it's going to be a simple and painless procedure.  Poor Michael doesn't know how to calm my anxiety down, so he does nothing at all, which makes it a bit worse.  At least he tries to be there for me.  That's more than some people in my life will do for me. The HRCT scan was scheduled for August 15th.  I had to reschedule it several times over the last month due to my anxiety and scheduling conflicts.  I finally got it done on that date.  It was a day that I had therapy group prior to my scheduled test.  I went to group and hardly said a word the entire time, mainly because my anxiety was through the roof.  I'm good at masking, so most people don't even know to ask me if I'm o...

 When you have a disease or condition like Scleroderma , you must keep up on yearly testing.  There are several different tests that are required for proper monitoring of the disease.  Yesterday, I completed my yearly echocardiogram at Pulse Heart Institute in Spokane, Washington.  Well, this test is supposed  to be done on a yearly basis, but I have extreme medical anxiety, so I waited four years to get it done after the first one.  Testing is difficult for me for many different reasons, the main one being I absolutely hate to be touched by anyone, for any purpose.   The echocardiogram was scheduled for 4 pm, after my therapy appointment.  I had two hours in between appointments, but I didn't have much to do, so we went and had a Frappuccino before we went to my echocardiogram appointment.  I used our coffee date as a time to prepare myself mentally for what I had to put myself through.  Any test that requires me to remove my clo...