Before Devic's - Spinal MRI

This was originally posted on October 17, 2009 on my other blog. This blog will have a new design before the month is up. Yay! Until then, I'm going to do "Before Devic's" posts just to catch everyone up on how I got here.


Yesterday was my MRI of the Cervical and Thoracic (sounds like a dinosaur) Spine. It was at a different place then my last MRI because of the Doc change of course. I didn't think it was possible for this MRI to be any louder then the first one but surprise, surprise, this one was.

I went in a 7:30pm with a slight headache. I finished at 9pm with the sound of fog horns ringing in both ears and a massive headache. She gave me ear phones that were playing classical music but really, what's the point? I heard maybe one song throughout the entire hour and a half.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I don't handle IV's or getting my blood drawn very well, or in this case the contrast.* For me, it's not the prick or even the feel of the stuff going in that bothers me, it's the thought. I think about a needle hanging out of my arm and blood and....yuck! Anyway, I'm known for passing out.

So the radiologist asks me before I even go in, "How are your veins?" And luckily, they're great! So I tell her that but I also inform her that I don't handle that kind of stuff well and so on. When the time came for the contrast, all was fine until I see what looks like water flying towards my face. I close my eyes and then she quickly asks if I'm alright. "Yes," I say. She then tells me to NOT move my arm no matter what and that she has to go and get some more contrast. Great!

So I'm sitting there, thinking about a needle hanging out of my arm, wondering if I'm bleeding or what's happeneing. Of course I can't see because I have all this padding crap around my head and a metal bridge-looking thing going over my neck. In my mind I'm thinking, "Come on Lady! Hurry it up!" I keep looking at the beautiful (artifical) scenary that's postered on the ceiling panels and trying to think of something else. Anything else.

Finally, what felt like 10 minutes but was probably only 2, she came back. She finished up the contrast, taped the "wound", and sent me back into the tomb of (noisy) death. I hate it when I'm in there. I've only done it twice but with both times, I've been ready to scream right at the moment before they pull me out.

I received a copy of my scans (obviously) and have shared a couple of the clearest pics with you. I'm no doctor but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking at. If I'm right, I'm screwed!

* Contrast - Contrast dye is a solution that is used to accentuate specific structures when looking at an image. Injected into your blood vessels. Fun! Fun!