Bad To The Bone

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Green Beer? Corned beef and cabbage? Parade? Nah. I think I'll get an MRI.

This time I was assured that since we were only looking at one hip it would only take 45min. I didn't get off on the right foot that day. I woke up feeling stressed and rushed and when Mike made a criticism of something I did I collapsed into a tearful heap. It was going to be a good day. Family in green-Check. Dressed in clothes with no metal-Check. Breakfast-Check. Let's go get this magnetic resonance imaging on.

I messed up the appointment time I thought I was supposed to be there by 9:30, but apparently I was on the books for noon. Oops. They talked to the tech who said I could stay and have my test because his next patient was booked for a double study and never made it all the way through. I feel her pain. Phew.

This time my mom held Riley in the waiting room, sound asleep. I shuffled in eying the hard table I would be strapped to unable to move for the next 45min of my life. The tech sweetly assured me we'd get this done as quick as possible and offered me a blanket so I'd be comfortable.

There I was laying on the hard table, strapped in, blanketed up and being slid into a tube like a plunger into a syringe. It was a full minute before the machine kicked on roaring in strange inconsistent non-rhythms. Even though I had been warned to hold still I jumped, thank you startle reflex. It was a few minutes later that my nose began to itch. I was beyond frustrated and I became hyper aware of the awkward way my hands were resting on my collarbone.

I tried to shut out the trapped feeling and all the noise the best I could. I'd close my eyes and try to call up positive images, eventually the starting or stopping of the noise around me or an imaginary baby's cry would jar me back to reality. Back to my coffin. Back to the intensifying pain spreading though my lower back into my hips. Back to the reality of what this test means.

At the very end I managed to doze off, sometime after he told me there were 15min left. I was rudely awakened from have formed dream images by the machine shutting down. I peeled myself off the table and shuffled out the door thinking "I've done it. I given the Ortho everything he needs to replace my hip." Here we go.