Later -

I was so tired on Thursday, that I kept falling asleep in the MRI machine. If you’ve ever had an MRI, you know that they put earplugs in your ears and headphones over them, also. They usually play music or something through the headphones to help drown out the banging. That never works. So, you can only imagine how tired I was in order to keep falling asleep through all of that racket. I am laying face down with my head in the cradle, so it’s a bit difficult to move. My arms are stretched out above my head and I have an IV in. The only time I woke up during the procedure (which lasted an hour) was when they spoke to me. They kept waking me up to tell me to stop moving so much. After a few times, I finally figured out how I could’ve been moving when I was asleep. It was my sleep apnea. I kept waking up, gasping for air.  After it was over, the tech told me I should get that checked. I laughed. I said I already had a CPAP machine.

My two hour MRI appointment turned into five hours. They did not believe me that I had my spinal stimulator removed a month ago. Even though it was in my chart. I told them they could call the surgeon, or I would show them the incisions on my back, which still had a couple of Steri-Strips attached. The day after my surgery, I informed my doctor at MD Anderson, that it had been removed. She said she would put it into the system. They still wanted me to have an x-ray prior to the MRI to show that every piece of metal had been removed. Like my surgeon would’ve just left some pieces in there for fun and not told me. So, I had the x-ray, even though too many x-rays can give you cancer….. Surprise! They didn’t find any metal.  However, then they had to reschedule the MRI in another building, and I had to wait an additional two hours before that happened. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper and it made for a very long day for me after driving 200 miles to get there. Hey, at least they validated my parking.