Danger Will Robinson

Had my MRI done yesterday and it wasn't terrible.  We got there a few minutes early so I could fill out paperwork and was called back very quickly.  The tech, Laura, was incredible.  I made sure not to wear any metal (no jewelry, wore a sports bra, etc) so she took me back right away.  The MRI machine is scary as hell.  

She went over the procedure as I laid down on the table.  It would take about a hour to get all of the pictures with and without contrast.  I would get headphones to try and block out the noise of the machine and could pick any station to listen to.  My choice of jazz surprised her a bit, guess it's not one of the usual requests.  They would be taking images of my pelvic and abdominal regions to check out the uterus and kidneys.  

We then chatted a bit about infertility and made a few quips about fertile myrtles.  The upbeat atmosphere helped keep the anxiety down.  She got the I.V. for the contrast dye set up and it was almost painless.  I was then strapped down to the table.  They placed what looked like a piece of a rescue stretcher over my abdomen and strapped that down as well.  With that piece in place the machine could actually gauge my breathing and I could see it on the front LED monitor.  She gave me a plastic bulb to hold, if I needed to get her attention all I had to do was squeeze it. 

It looked a bit like this, but I got to stay in my street clothes

The table was then raised and slowly moved into the tube.  I'm not terribly claustrophobic, but being in the tube was very disconcerting.  It's dimly lit, makes very loud noises, you can barely shift your limbs, and the "ceiling" of the tube is less than 12" from your face.  I felt like I was in a sci fi movie, strapped into a tiny escape pod as the emergency evacuation alarms blared.  

The scans started and I tried to let my mind wander to distract from the deafening beeps.  Laura told me to breathe normally through most of the scans, but there were a few I had to hold my breath through.  After what seemed like hours it was time to insert the contrast dye.  The injection site felt like they were pushing ice water into my veins.  I could feel it travel up my arm and my hand simultaneously went numb.  Both feelings disappeared after a few seconds and the scans continued.

Finally the table slid out of the tube and I was done.  The I.V. was removed, they undid all the confining straps, and I was free to go.  I was instructed to drink lots of water throughout the day to flush the dye out.  Dave was sitting in the waiting room and commented on how pale I looked as we were leaving.  It wasn't an overly awful experience, just physically and mentally draining.

Dr. S should be getting the results sometime today so hopefully I'll hear from him before the weekend.  I am also crossing my fingers that my next Prolactin draw comes back normal, I'd rather not go back for another MRI.