Tuesday, November 03, 2009
MRI
so i finally made it to the MRI appointment. the first appointment i believe i missed due to illness. the second appointment i missed due to poor decision making and not knowing my way around Newtown well enough. yesterday though was a different story and i arrived in fine fashion in plenty of time don my little blue hospital gown, which by the way, i made look sexy.
when i entered the room where the MRI machine was, i couldn't help but have memories of one of the EXORCIST films where they subject poor little reagan to a battery of seemingly similar, very noisy tests. and let me tell ya, they weren't far off either.
after hopping up on the table, the nurses - with precision skill - nudge me, pull me, wrap me, strap me and prop me up with various bits of foam then proceed to exit the room like frightened mice. moments later, with my headphones tuned to the local rock radio station (albeit not quite loud enough), i began my backward slide into the claustrophobic innards of that giant machine you see above.
oddly enough, i happened across some spelunking memories once fully inserted inside the machine. was reminded of a caving experience somewhere east of San Francisco where i was wedged in just as tightly. only difference was that during that experience i could wiggle and shimmy and squirm as much as i wanted to. here though, in this machine, all strapped down, i had to pay special attention to my breathing - to keep it as steady as possible so as to get a more clear image during the reading.
so i'm layin there rockin out to U2, Led Zeppelin and listening to Eric Clapton sing his classic "Cocaine". do you have any idea how hard it is to NOT tap one's foot to such good music?
to make matters worse during this 30 minute ordeal...the longer i sit immobile in this tube, the pain and discomfort continue to mount in my shoulder.
a little while on, the voice in my headphones informs me that we're almost done - "one scan to go - three and a half more minutes" then reverts to the last stanza of "Cocaine". i patiently ride it out and focus on the growing discomfort in my shoulder, anxiously awaiting the moment when i can shake the pain from my body.
next up, hopefully some surgery...
so i finally made it to the MRI appointment. the first appointment i believe i missed due to illness. the second appointment i missed due to poor decision making and not knowing my way around Newtown well enough. yesterday though was a different story and i arrived in fine fashion in plenty of time don my little blue hospital gown, which by the way, i made look sexy.
when i entered the room where the MRI machine was, i couldn't help but have memories of one of the EXORCIST films where they subject poor little reagan to a battery of seemingly similar, very noisy tests. and let me tell ya, they weren't far off either.
after hopping up on the table, the nurses - with precision skill - nudge me, pull me, wrap me, strap me and prop me up with various bits of foam then proceed to exit the room like frightened mice. moments later, with my headphones tuned to the local rock radio station (albeit not quite loud enough), i began my backward slide into the claustrophobic innards of that giant machine you see above.
oddly enough, i happened across some spelunking memories once fully inserted inside the machine. was reminded of a caving experience somewhere east of San Francisco where i was wedged in just as tightly. only difference was that during that experience i could wiggle and shimmy and squirm as much as i wanted to. here though, in this machine, all strapped down, i had to pay special attention to my breathing - to keep it as steady as possible so as to get a more clear image during the reading.
so i'm layin there rockin out to U2, Led Zeppelin and listening to Eric Clapton sing his classic "Cocaine". do you have any idea how hard it is to NOT tap one's foot to such good music?
to make matters worse during this 30 minute ordeal...the longer i sit immobile in this tube, the pain and discomfort continue to mount in my shoulder.
a little while on, the voice in my headphones informs me that we're almost done - "one scan to go - three and a half more minutes" then reverts to the last stanza of "Cocaine". i patiently ride it out and focus on the growing discomfort in my shoulder, anxiously awaiting the moment when i can shake the pain from my body.
next up, hopefully some surgery...