Radioactive

It was a beautiful morning today and Bob and I were both off work for Veteran's Day. We decided to go up to Canada and run the trail along the river and lake and then into the woods. We parked by the Peace Bridge and took off--5 miles out and 5 back. There wasn't a crowd at the border, so it seemed we should be through customs in 15 minutes. As soon as we pull up to the agent's booth, he asks "Have either of you had a medical procedure in the last 30 days?" I thought that an odd question. I had to think a minute, then admit I have had ongoing medical procedures. Turns out, I am very radioactive and set off all sorts of alarms. They pulled us over--my first time ever--and made us go inside for further something. I'm still not sure what it all was. They brought out a gieger counter, pointed it at me, and it started going crazy. They then had to find out what my medical procedure was. I told them--I'd had a MUGA scan yesterday--it's a heart test (heart damage is a side effect of another medicine I take to prevent recurrance of the most recent cancer). To do the scan they give me a shot of radioactive material. I'm not sure how much they were able to find out, but it doesn't make me real confident of the HIPPA laws. They also had to take the car through the machine again to make sure there was no other radioactive material. At that point they had our passports and car keys--made me a little nervous--but their punishment was having to go in our car after we'd just run 10 miles! There were smelly towels and clothes in the car. After more then an hour, I guess the customs' officials determined we were not dangerous.

Since I'll be having these scans regularly through next summer, I guess I won't be going back to Canada anytime soon.