Thursday, April 2, 2009

I Spent the Evening in an Alien Ship


I'm not one to disparage any opportunity to spend quality time by myself, but last night was a bit much.

After a last-minute phone call yesterday from my doctor, who is as intrigued by my knee injury as I am, I found myself scheduled for an MRI at 6 p.m. at the lovely Providence Imaging Center.

For those of you who noted the appointment time and said "Ahh, that is a very bad appointment time, the end of the day...", you are correct. A one-hour delay of game until 7 p.m. meant I had to miss taekwondo and swimming lessons (oh darn)and instead curled myself into the uncomfortable armchairs of the waiting room reading a book. At least it was my book.

Finally emerging around 7:15, the tech was apologetic, even groveling a bit when she actually saw the time, but quickly recovered and ushered me into the Borg Chamber to get the thing done.

Ever had an MRI? So loud that one needs to wear earplugs, the machine makes funny sounds that are reminiscent of a rocket launch pad even before firing up to take a scan. Not a quick process, the MRI took a half hour to effectively peer into the inner workings of my left joint; this way, that way, up, down. Should I have felt violated?

I was warned that the sounds would be "knocking and banging", and I was to relax and be perfectly still during the process. Sounded simple enough, but have you ever tried to completely relax your muscles while jackhammers are drilling directly above your head, expecting at any time some machine/man to pop out from behind and say "Assimilate"?

Finally emerging around 8:15, my body was exhausted from relaxing.

They better find something or I'll be ticked.

2 comments:

EventGal24 said...

Ok, so didn't know you were in that much pain! Isn't an MRI bizarre. Love the new look of the site.

Anonymous said...

My husband suffereed a bleed in his brain and had multiple MRIs most of them he was unconscious. The one he had when he was "awake" but still very disoriented sounded like a car wreck to me and I was across the hall in the waiting room. Afterward he took my hand and said "Never let them take me back there again" He recovered from his injury after 3 months in the hospital, but when another doctor wanted him to have an MRI on another body part he said "Only if I get to be sedated". Hope all goes well for you