MRI Mack Truck

Okay, I know MRIs are just magnetic. You’re not getting zapped with a bunch of radiation, like with X-rays and PET scans. It’s just high-powered magnets flying around you.

But after two MRIs in the space of three days, I feel like crap.

The MRI place called me back, because the doctor ordered another type of image, so back I went, yesterday afternoon, through Friday afternoon traffic. Apparently, everyone was fleeing work early, because the traffic was terrible. And the MRI place is off in West Bumblef*ck, so it took a while to get there. This cut into time I really needed to spend on a couple of my projects at work, which I wanted to get done before the day was up. I ended up waiting around for nearly an hour, before they finally got me in (I’d thought if I got there earlier in the day, they’d finish up with me early – ’twas not to be.)

Anyway, they just needed to get a couple of images, which took all of15 minutes, tops. So, that wasn’t bad. I was able to hold still, and they said the images looked good. That was a relief. I tend to twitch and have tremors, which can screw things up. They put foam wedges in beside my head, so it would be propped in place, so I don’t think I moved at all.

Compared to the waiting, the MRI was the easy part. And the wait was easy, compared to my drive home.

I had a 90-minute trip through evening rush hour traffic, and it was interminable. I did manage to find some music to keep me going, but it was pretty rough. And I started to feel pretty sick after about 20 minutes in the car. I was aching all over, feeling hot and fevered, and my stomach was hurting me. I’ve gotten sick after MRIs before, but I assumed it was the gadolinium – the contrast agent. Yesterday, though, I was feeling pretty rough. I made it home safely, and promptly took a shower and went to bed.

I took my temperature a couple of times — 99.3, 99.4, 100.4 before my nap. After I woke up, I checked again, and it was 99.4, which was a 1 degree improvement. Then I lay in bed and surfed the web on my tablet for a while. I try to avoid doing that as much as possible. It’s bad sleep hygiene to look at devices in bed, and it totally messes up my sleeping schedule after a while, but I just couldn’t get up. I felt like I’d been run over — completely wiped out.

After another hour, I checked my temperature again, and it was normal – 98.6. I still wasn’t feeling great, but I went out and picked up some take-out food, so I didn’t have to cook. I got in bed before 11:00, and when I checked my temperature, it was 96.5, which is normal for me.

Today, my fever is gone, but every cell in my body hurts. I feel like I have the flu – without the chills and fever. My head is throbbing in a different way than normal. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like a low-level pulsing all through it. Usually, my headaches are localized to the front of my skull, but this is an all-over headache.

And my body is just in pain. Everything hurts. When I move. When I hold still. When I sit. When I stand. And it hurts all through.

My stomach is upset, and I’m having gastrointestinal distress. This time, I had no contrast agent, so I’m not sure why my system is acting up, but it is. I felt pretty good after the first MRI – no noticeable side-effects, that I could tell. But today, I’m really feeling it.

I supposed it might have helped, if I’d waited longer between the scans. Even though it’s just magnets, it’s still sending something through your body – waves or whatever.  And if MRI were 100% benign, there wouldn’t be all those warning signs around the center. They have different zones, I assume to indicate different levels of exposure to whatever is in the airwaves, so there must be something about it that urges caution.

Now what do I do? I wasn’t able to sleep past 4 a.m.  I just lay in bed and listened to the owls hooting in the woods behind my house. I got up about 5 and did a little exercise, got my breakfast, and started my day as I normally do. I just need to get my body back on schedule, get it normalized, and make sure I get plenty of rest this weekend.

It’s light outside, now, so I’ll go for a walk in the woods. That’s always good for what ails me. And if I don’t feel great, I’ll just come home and go back to bed. I just need to get back to normal, and get my body feeling human again.

I just hope they find something useful. Because if they don’t, that’s two days lost — no, three, counting today.

I hope it will be worth it, and I’ll get some DTI results back that show something that my doctors can use. Here’s hoping.

Now, about that walk…