70 Minute MRI

A lot happened today that I have not processed yet, so instead I am gonna tell you about yesterday.

Lou woke me up at 7:00 AM so we would have time to watch the last episode of season 7 of Stargate SG-1, which would kill the disc so I could send it back to Netflix. Turns out, the last epsiode of season 7 (The Lost City) is two hours long! We had to quit halfway through so I could make my 9:30 AM meeting. Imagine letting work get in the way of Stargate.

My back bothered me all day, but I got really involved trying to figure out how to revise this one chapter that has apparently been confusing a customer... and at one point I realized that an hour had flown by without me even thinking about my back. Awesome. Who knew work could be therapeutic?

I could not eat or drink anything after 1:45 PM, so I set up an Outlook reminder at 1:30 and had a cookie and a cup of tea and a bottle of water.

At 5:00 PM, I curled up on the floor under my desk and tried to relax my back. I had forgotten to take more Advil and Tylenol before 1:45 PM and was suffering the consequences. Lou called me at 6:05 PM to wake me up because I was afraid I would fall asleep and miss the darned appointment.

The hospital seemed pretty empty and quiet when I arrived at 7:30 PM.

I'll skip ahead to getting loaded into the machine. The MRI person put headphones on me and explained that I needed them so that she could talk to me when I was in the machine. She loaded me into the machine with one arm straight back over my head (so I would fit more comfortably) and tucked a comfy pillow under my knees. I also had my legs crossed at the ankle which was very comfortable -- for awhile.

I got inserted into the machine, which was a slightly tight fit but okay. Like a big hug! Then the machine started clanking and hooting and banging and I did not hear anything on the headphones for a long time. I started to wonder, what if the headphones weren't working? Maybe she was talking to me but I couldn't hear her. Or worse, maybe she had keeled over dead from a heart attack and I was stuck in this machine with no one at the controls...

Clearly I needed to stop that line of thought.

Instead I started thinking about the black and pink fabric I bought for that skirt I am going to be sewing. Gosh darn it next time I am buying a pattern with pockets.

Anyway, after about a million years, she finally came over the headphones and told me to hold my breath. There was a lot more clanging and honking and vibration and then she said I could breathe again. That happened a bunch of times. It seemed to go on forever. My ankles started to ache, but I was afraid to uncross them in case that messed something up. And my shoulder really started to ache. I had this ball in my hand which I was supposed to squeeze if I needed help but I didn't want to be a wimp.

Then she came on the headphones and apologized for how long it was taking. But she didn't tell me how much longer. I really wished she had. So I started composing a polite yet pointed little speech about how she could improve her customer service. (I knew I would never say it out loud but it was fun anyway.)

Finally my shoulder was so on fire, I had to squeeze the ball to call for help because I couldn't take it anymore. She answered right away and said there were just two minutes more. So I counted! I must count slow because I was only at 65 seconds when she pulled me out.

She said I had been in there for an hour and ten minutes! Yikes!

As I got dressed, I gobbled the granola bar and bottle of water I had in my pocketbook. Then I was free! Not much traffic on the road. The whole ride home I was thinking about how I would be coming back first thing tomorrow morning for all the doctor appointments. When I got home, I got a big hug from Lou.