So I finally went for a cervical & lumbar MRI yesterday after work. I told my Doc who's been bugging me for years to get this done that I had to have an open MRI and She said that I would be plesantly surprised when I got there. Well I sure was! It was this new sit in MRI which I hadn't even heard of before. It looked really cool untill I had to get into it, It was very narrow almost like sitting on a chair between two walls. Because I am on the large side, I had to crunch myself in there. It was OK at first but after about 15 minutes I developed a muscle spazm in the middle of my back which felt like a hot dagger! So I sat there for what seemed like an eternity with this pain and the tech lady yelling over the speaker to sit still! When she finally came in, she said you did great, you didn't move at all and that I could take a break and use the restroom, thank God! Then it was back for round two. This was going to be the cervicle one. She put me back into the seat and moved this head clamp thing over me and screwed it to my head kind of like a Christmas tree base w/ the 4 bolts around it to hold the base of the tree. Of course the boltends had big pads on them which pushed agaist my head. At this point she raised and lowered the chair part to try to get me more confortable, it didn't! I finally said lets just do it, it's getting late! So there I sat w/ sweat droplets coming down my face and into my eyes because she forgot to turn the fan back on. After only 5 minutes my back and soulders were starting to spaz and a while later my neck. It was like a torture chamber, much worse than the time I just had doing my lower back or an open MRI that you lay down on. I was trying to watch the news on the bigscreen TV on the wall in front of me to take my mind off the pain but ended up continually blinking w/ the sweat rolling into my eyes. I could barely hear her saying something to me but couldn't make it out over the pings, bangs and pops! It was the worst 2 hours I've had in a long long time. When I finally got out of the contraption, she asked me if I was alright, I said they should send one of these things down to Guantanamo Cuba because an hour in one of these things, the tererists will be singing like canaries! Then she said I moved so much that she thought I ruined the films! I calmly told here that those moves were not vollentary, they were my muscles spazing which I had no control of! They will call me and let me know if I have to go back! I don't think so! I'll never get in one of these new and improved MRI's again! Well thats all folks, I hope if you ever need an MRI and you get the chance to use one of these new ones, it works a lot better on you than it did on me!
Yout tortured friend,
Pete
PS> I got in the MRI machine at 4:05 PM and was finished at 6:37 PM!!!