Not a fan of MRI....

MRI'S are hard. I am definitely not a fan. I have been having numbness in my arms for over five years. Mostly when I lay down or use my hand for long periods of time. My Dr insists that I have carpal tunnel and has had me wearing wrist braces....which have done nothing by the way.....well, when the numbness moved to my left foot it has been driving me crazy. I just cannot live with it anymore. My brother Jeremy keeps telling me....get a MRI....he had some numbness problems that was fix with neck surgery and we seemed to have similar symptoms.  I insisted to my Dr that I get a MRI and he ordered 3 of them on my spine. Yay! Finally gonna get some answers. 

I set up the appointment and learned that I would be in the tube for 3 hours. No problem...right. They asked me if I had claustrophobia (boy was I wrong). I said no...but I told them I do have anxiety.  They suggested I take a Valium and to come 1 hour early to the MRI and they would administer it to me before the procedure.

I show up to the appointment. I arrived an hour and a half early because I was getting somewhat anxious and wanted to give the Valium some time to work. I waited and waited. I asked the receptionist about the Valium and she said someone would get me to administer it. Fast forward an hour and 20 minutes later and someone finally came for me. She was running behind and she gave me the Valium and asked me to chew it so it would work faster. Yuck. Then....she wanted me just to come right back without waiting the hour for the medication to kick in. Ok...this was not good. 

She had me sit on the table and she put a IV in for the contrast. She was ready to go. I was sweating. My heart rate was thru the roof. I had no saliva in my mouth. I could hardly swallow or breathe.  She had me lay down on the table and put earphones on to cancel out the noise....and then she put my head in a vise and strapped a contraption over my neck and locked it down. This was not cool...not cool at all. I was freaking out! This was about 10 minutes after I took the valium. She told me not to worry because she could fit a 300 lb person in the tube and that I was gonna be fine. I was not so sure. I told her she needed to let me out and sit up for a minute because I was not ready. She reluctantly agreed and unstrapped me and let me sit up for a minute. She got me some water and I jumped off the table and walked around for a bit. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that the music was not working so I did not have anything to listen to that might calm me down. After a few minutes of me freaking out she told me we had to get going because she was running behind. No worries about my problems I guess lets make this all about her. She strapped me down again and slid me in the tub. Man...it was tight in there. My shoulders were touching the sides of the tube and my face was about two inches from the top. I was freaking out. I could not move, swallow or hardly breathe. I was crying inside. She started the test. It was noisy even though my sense of hearing had been cut off with the earphones. I got about 2 minutes into the test before I started for reals crying and hyperventilating. There was no way on this earth I was going to last for 3 hours like this....NO WAY! I had to tell her to pull me out. I was not cool....I had gotten an F in MRI! The lady told me I would be an excellent candidate for a sedated MRI. I agreed with her....knock me out for it for sure!

I don't know....maybe if they had given me the valium an hour before the test things would have been different. Maybe if the music had been working it would have relaxed me. Maybe if I had some gum in the mouth it would have not been so dry. Maybe if I only had one test instead of 3 to do. All I know is that this was going to be one of the biggest challenges of my life to do. See the picture below...you can see the vise that they strapped my head in to....gives me the heebeejeebees just looking at it!

 I called my Dr and left a message with his assistant. I told them I needed to be sedated for the MRI and to have them call me and set it up. Well....he did not agree with that and wanted me to try again. He wanted me to go to Ogden to a open MRI and try there. It's not exactly close for me to go there. I did some research. Alta hospital has a thirty percent bigger tube then Riverton. They can fit a 400 pound man in theirs. I set up an appointment there and only scheduled one test. Only one hour long. If I did not make it thru this test I would insist on a IV sedation.

I started to practice for a MRI....sounds silly right...but I did. Avery found me a refrigerator box and we made a MRI tube. I would lay in it in the basement with earphones on and a fan blowing in the bottom. I would lay in it for a hour and just cry. I asked Kendall what was wrong with me....he said....well for starters your a laying in a box in the basement.....haha....he is so funny! This is serious. I didn't know what else to do.

 Well, I had really bad anxiety leading up to the test. I had to wait 2 weeks before I could even go and that just gave me a lot to stress to think about every night. I was not sleeping well and the thought of the MRI consumed me. Finally the day arrived. My Dr had told me to not take the valium but to instead take two of my anxiety medications two hours before the test. I did this. I went to my appointment pretty looped up.  The MRI tech was very awesome. I told him I was claustrophobic and that I had anxiety. He set me up to go in feet first and with no head vise. He also set me up with Pandora tunes to listen too. He also said he would wait to give me the IV until the middle of the test and then he would put the contrast in and then take it right back out. He was an angel....maybe it was because I was doped up...but guess what....I did it!

In other news...only 2 MRI's left to go!!! Gonna try to bust them both out on Monday. Wish me luck!