MRI experience

Rohan picked me up after work so that I could go get my MRI. I'm so glad that the place I went to is open late so I could go after work.

The office called me a couple days ago to run through things and told me that the scan would be an hour long. When I got there, the technician realised that my referral said "hip" instead of "hips," so they calculated the time based on just one hip and my SI joints, but I told him that I think she wanted both looked at. So instead of an hour, it needed to be an hour and fifteen minutes. That's a long time to stay still!

I did a pretty good job of staying still, but I was in a lot of pain towards the end. For these MRI scans, they placed a big plastic thing, apparently with coils inside, on my abdomen to pick up the signals to make the images. I don't remember that last time, or when I've had my countless brain MRIs, but he said it's always there. Some places have different ones, though, so it may have been smaller.  At first, that thing was fine on my stomach, but it heats up. After a while, I was feeling nauseated. I think that that plastic thing might be the reason I felt so sick during my previous MRI of my back/hips. (But on a positive side note, no contrast this time!)

In the last twenty or so minutes, I was really struggling. I felt nauseated, my muscles were struggling to stay still, and I was starting to feel a lot of pain from laying on a flat board for so long. I tried to zen out, but that only lasted until about that point. I then just kept trying to breathe through the pain and prayed that God would give me the strength to make it through the rest of the MRI. It was a real struggle!

I was glad that Rohan was there to drive me home instead of me needing to take the bus. My nausea and pain kept getting worse. We did end up going to the grocery store before going home and my pain was actually feeling a bit better as I walked around. But I was still in enough pain that I wanted to take panadeine as soon as I could.

I took panadeine with dinner, but I'm still in a lot of pain. My lower back is sore; my hips are sore, on the sides and the front bit; and my hand/feet are feeling arthritic. I'm not really nauseated, though, so that's a plus! Hopefully the panadeine, along with a good night's sleep, will help me feel better for tomorrow. I'll find out the results of my MRI when I see my rheumatologist next week.