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To all of you who have had fear of doing something you have
not done before I am writing this story. For all of you who have and want to identify with someone else who has been there and done that you may want to read my version.
Last January, due to a car accident it was necessary for me to have some MRIs to see why I am in a lot of pain. Many of us need those catscan things or x- rays, or whatever test they request to learn the whys of a problem the person is having. I have an inquiring mind I but also have a fear of being "closed in". I didnt like the sound of this test but I knew it was necessary. I got a lot of suggestions from my many cyberfriends and my regular friends plus family...either from what they had heard or experienced. Some said keep your eyes closed, and it was a good suggestion because I did. Another said count from 1 to 100 over and over, which I also did. Some suggested that I think about planting a garden, or that I think of a favorite place I had enjoyed visiting. I did those things, too. Before hand, I called and talked to the technician who would be in charge and she told me to take a tranquilizer and pain pill before I had the test so I would have an "I dont give a darn feeling," and I did that too. The technicial also told me it would take forty minutes to complete the test and I didn't know if I had heard her wrong or what. I assumed she meant forty minutes for each one. Well, I was not a happy camper...no way was I a happy camper, but I thought about Bob who'd had an MRI when they were looking for the cancer, and if he could do it, then I should be able to. Nevertheless, I still talked to people who had already experienced a test similar, or the same test that I would have. Well, we got there and I was told that the first MRI would take 15 minutes and second one would take 30 minutes. Had I heard wrong? Or had the technician told me wrong? Well, what she did tell me was that I had to take my bra off. My bra had metal hooks. And for those of you wear a partial or dentures, you must take them out as well. No jewlery or glasses, of course, as if I would wear glasses in there. Ha, I don't even want to have eyes open! They gave me ear-plugs and here is the part I didnt know about. The metal clanging is unreal! It sounds like Rosie Riveter was in there doing her job, or someone in a factory was repairing something. I was sure glad when that first fifteen minute test was over with. I got off table while the lady technician re-arranged the table because this time I was going in feet first, she told me. She went to the waiting room to tell Bob they would be doing my knee and that the next one would take thirty minutes, which was longer. "Hang on and we will go eat some lunch when we get done," he said. So back on the table I went...feet first, and they put my knee in some little holder to keep it still. Oh yes, I had to lie perfectly still. But the technician did it in three minute segments, and in between segments I was allowed to wiggle a little. Each sound had a different pitch and I could not wait until the sound stopped. I suggest that if possible, when someone orders one of these for you, you ask for an OPEN MRI. But then I guess you would still hear the sounds. Our hospital doesn't have an open MRI. The lady technician was very nice and I asked her how does she work where you hear those awful sounds all the time. She said you get used to it.
I thanked her when the test was finished and I was glad to. Each test had not taken 40 minutes, they had taken only forty-five minutes total. I, at least conquered my claustrophic fears, for those first fifteen minutes, when my head was in the tube, I kept thinking of all the polio victims who had to 'live' in an iron lung. Who was I to complain for a few short minutes? I thought about all those fellows in the service who had fought in a war. I thought of the dangers they had gone through and not knowing what the outcome would be? So when you must take a test or do something you are afraid of, talk to people and read about what some have to do just to survive. Of course we have options, but some folks don't have any.
 
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