I had my first ever MRI last night. Zero stars, would not recommend. It started with me taking the wrong way in the hospital and having to walk around the entire square, then down a long hallway, then around the corner, past where the carpeted area ends, then down another hallway and FINALLY to the MRI waiting room. My appt was at 6:50pm, so I’d already had a long day and my sciatica was killing me. The walk didn’t help. I got checked in and changed into the snazzy pjs they provided. Then I waited for 45 minutes. Fortunately I brought a book along with me, a book I really want to finish, so I didn’t entirely mind the wait. In hindsight it sure beat the procedure itself!

I was asked about and checked for metal so many times that I momentarily worried that I did have metal implants or something else I’d forgotten about. Fortunately they wanded me before walking into the actual MRI room. Then I had to lay on the bed and the pain intensified. She put a little pillow thing under my knees, but the sciatica I’m dealing with is painful and the pain is only relieved (briefly) when I can move my leg and bend the knee and hip joints frequently. The MRI lasted 45 minutes and I could not move. The pain came in waves and I found myself alternately breathing and/or crying through each wave. It was like never ending labor pains with no reward at the end. I was also in a tube, with my arms pinned at my side, overheating and sweating, and it was awful. The noise was loud, but that wasn’t so much the problem, mostly it was just intense noise (pounding, thumping, etc.) that intensified the rolling waves of sciatic pain. It was miserable. After I thought I’d been in there forever and thought the thing must be over soon, the lady came over the headphones and said that the first scan was done and there were just a few more, approximately 27 minutes to go. Based on the 45 minute estimate, that meant I’d only been in there for like 18 minutes. I cried and begged to move my legs. She paused things and let me move my legs, as long as I didn’t move my hips/butt at all. It helped a little.

When it was finally over and I was leaving, I had an eerie feeling walking down the long hallway in the hospital, normally bright and sunny with all the windows and light, now dim and entirely empty. I was walking slowly and with a limp and started feeling like I was in a zombie movie. Then I got to my car, in the deserted garage, I put the car in drive and got a notification that the front trunk was open. Weird. I got out to close it and had a movie moment where I swear someone was about to take me out in the garage. You know the common troupe where the person gets out of their car to fix/check a weird thing with their car, then gets killed by a stalker. That’s what I was feeling. I shut the frunk and got back into the car as fast as possible, locking the doors immediately. Of course I was totally safe, but it was a weird end to the whole hospital experience.

I was happy to finally get home and be done with the day. Two positives though, 1) the MRI bed was like a tunnel, so I was in there snug and tight, but if I rolled my eyes up I could see a bit of the ceiling above me. I think I would have felt a lot more claustrophobic if it had been fully enclosed. The other positive 2) is that hopefully (HOPEFULLY!!) they will have a plan of care for me when I chat with the doctor tomorrow morning. I’m hoping for a super easy, quick, magic pill that will take away the pain immediately, but I’ll settle for whatever they have to offer. I just really, really want to walk pain free again! Wish me luck.