If you’ve ever had an MRI you understand why I call it the Torture Tube. They squeeze you into a head brace, shove foam in your ears, and slide you into a big tube leaving only inches between you and the plastic. It’s a lot like a slide at a water theme park, only without the water. And the sliding. Once you’re safely inside the tube, the machine starts buzzing at a noise level that could wake the dead. It seriously sounds like they’re drilling into your head, and you almost wonder if they are and maybe you just don’t realize it because you’ve already gone crazy from the whole being stuck in a tube for who knows how long. You would love to ask “how much longer?” but they’ve instructed you to hold completely still – or else – so you don’t dare move a muscle. But then after you’ve been in there for over an hour your muscles start to twitch involuntarily and you fear that you’re going to screw it up and have to start all over.

I had an MRI last night. It was of the thoracic and cervical areas of my spine, so it took an extra long time. All together I was on the MRI table for just short of two hours. At least they let me bring my own music so they could pipe it into some special earphones. I’ve had 3 other MRIs and this was the first time they told me I could bring music. It made such a huge difference. It’s really hard to relax and pass the time when all you can hear is the drilling and buzzing. The drilling and buzzing is SO loud. That’s why they give you ear plugs, so as not to damage your ear drums. It’s that loud.

They had to do part of the test with contrast, so just when I was hoping it was over, they had to insert the dye into my veins and then throw me back in for another half hour. The long sleeve shirt I was wearing was practically a tourniquet when they tried to pull it up past my elbow, so the tech had no trouble finding a vein. He did have trouble finding a vein with the correct routing structure, however. The dye wasn’t going where it needed to go so I have holes in both arms now, thank you. It’s a good thing I don’t have a fear of needles or enclosed spaces. They would have had to shoot me with a tranquilizer gun to get that test done.

All of this was just to get a baseline, to see what things look like now. So down the road if I have another flare up I can go have another trip into the torture tube and see what’s changed. Who said MS wasn’t fun?