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February 25, 2005
Magnetic Resonance Imagining
You know you live in a small town when you give your name to the hospital registration desk and they say, "Oh. You have cats."
"Pardon me?" I said.
"You have cats," she said. "And you must have had lab work done on... Sunny and Katala."
Suddenly, all was clear. Our vet had ordered bloodwork on the cats, and unlike cities where there are labs that cater to vets, in Moscow, they send that stuff to the only lab in town: the lab at Gritman Memorial.
The MRI itself was both boring and unnerving. I mean, I had taken off all of my jewelry at home except my wedding ring, but I still wasn't expecting to have the form ask whether, among other things, I had metal dentalwork or tattoos (and the location of said objects). I had wondered about the whole tattoo thing, but I hadn't really expected it might contain metal ink. I mean, it doesn't sparkle. (Though a sparkly tattoo would be really COOL.)
Anyhow, I got ear protection, because it was loud, and it IS. VERY LOUD, even with the headset. And then I lay there in this thing, for roughly 45 minutes while it made various unpredictable loud noises. I couldn't even meditate because the noises didn't last for any specific length of time or go in any particular order. While a given noise was happening, I could slip into a qigong state, but as soon as it stopped, my focus would break. and then the next noise would start. So mostly I just looked at the ceiling. It was really boring. Considering the price, I'm surprised they didn't project a movie for me. At least then I'd have had some kind of distraction.
But afterward, the tech let me look at the pictures. And I was amazed at how clear they are. I was thinking it was those rainbow-y, blurry pictures. Or that it would be like an ultrasound. But no, it was like someone had sliced into my leg and taken black and white pictures. You can see fat and muscle striations. You can see the clear edges of my bones. You can see where there is still a lot of fluid in my knee. It was incredible. I looked at the first picture, and my jaw dropped. My mouth was open pretty much the entire time I watched.
I see the doctor on Wednesday.
Posted by sally at February 25, 2005 06:19 PM
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