CAT Scan

Tomorrow morning I'm having a CAT scan. From the wikipedia entry on CAT scans...

Sometimes contrast materials such as barium (administered orally or rectally) or intravenous iodinated contrast are used. This is useful to highlight structures such as vessels or intestines that otherwise would be difficult to delineate from their surroundings.

All I can say is thank god there's nothing wrong with my intestines. There are probably worse ways to start your weekend morning than with a barium enema but I'd still rather not. I'm such a nerd: yesterday I pulled one of my computer science books off the shelf and read about the algorithms that are used to convert the raw CAT scan data into the cross sectional view of the anotomy. I don't have any idea why I thought that was a good idea.