~ MRI ~

Have you ever had one? I can now official say....I have.

So what's it like? Is it claustrophobic (sp??), it is uncomfortable.....huh?

Well, I'll tell ya, it's loud.

Weren't expecting that were you? Yep, the quarters aren't that tight....but it is very, very loud. I'm not sure where the sound is coming from as it is apparantly huge magnets that are doing the imaging. And it's not the same noise. Each type of scan they do, is a different sound. Then they vibrate you around a little. But it's supposed to be fine because they put these mondo headphones on you, over top of your shower cap, that is the final accessory to your hospital gown. It's fab.

Oh, and you can't move.

But here's the clincher, there isn't anything holding you still. So you're just supposed to lay as still possible, on the very hard stretcher type bed, in your hospital gown, with an ouchy IV in your arm for when they shoot you up? And what is the drug of choice....only dye.

I'm supposed to arrive 1/2 hour before the scan, fine no problem. They have this immense questionaire that you have to fill out. It asks everything from when you swallowed last to when the next time you plan to clean our your ears will be. Man, I didn't know what most of that stuff was on there, so I guess it doesn't apply to me. My mom came with me, to be supportive. Which basically meant she got to sit in the waiting room reading old Reader's Digest. But we didn't know how I'd react to the dye, as I've had bad experiences with dye based products before. So I strip down, and remove all metal (all my piercings had to be removed...navel, tongue, left cheek) and then the nice student nurse had to run through it all again, cause I'd forgot about the massive list I'd already signed. Then the IV. I have veins that don't cooperatate. Shocking I know. The only thing I can truly describe as thin on me are my veins. They're hard to find. They poke around, they squeeze off my arm, they slap my hands like I got caught chewing gum in Math class. It's pleasant. Then they try to nab one, and miss, and have to try the other arm. It's all wonderful as I lay there and pretend that's everything is fine and I enjoy having the student nurse practise her IV torture on me.

So she got it in, sort of. It was in, but a painful spot. Great.

They tell me to relax, ha ha, okay. I'll lay here and wonder where this will all end. Is there something in there? Well we all know there isn't much of anything in there, but is there 'really' something in there?

My turn. Oh no, wait. The nice woman that didn't speak much english, so of course the nurses thought that speaking louder to her would help, she's blown her IV. It took more than 20 minutes for them to put another one in. Painful for her, boring for me.

So I'm now and MRI survivor. I'm going to wear a ribbon.

So what did they find, I don't know. No one would tell me, that what my doctor has to do.

Stay tuned.