Magnetic Personality

I had to go in for MRIs on both knees today in hopes the images will assist in getting to the bottom of my on again off again knee issues....mainly the pain and instability when my doctor has ruled out yet another tear of the medial meniscus in either knee. I'm not sure what he's hoping to see, but whatever it is, I don't want the action plan to alleviate the issues to be another 'procedure' that will involve rehab and surgery. While knee surgery has come a long way from when I first went under the knife in 1989 (I'm pretty sure my Air Force surgeon used a hack saw and pliers to repair my knee the first time...the zipper scar running down the side of my right knee is not indicative of minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery...whatever he did was majorly invasive and I was miserable for weeks afterwards), it is still surgery. That means anesthesia and stuff. I don't want to deal with stuff like that right now.

So, yeah - the MRI. Since it was on my knees I didn't have to go into the machine head first. I just kind of laid on my back with my knees slightly propped up. I was given a blanket and a pillow and some headphones and away we went. Within about 30 seconds of the first imaging segment, I was dead asleep. I must have violently snored while slumbering because I snapped awake...and moved. Not good times because moving during an MRI is something you don't want to be doing. The tech had to start the segment again, but sure enough, I fell asleep a second time...but I didn't snore, I had one of those crazy half awake/half asleep dreams...in the dream I was trying to kick a field goal and when it came time to kick, I had a massive sleep spaz twitch and moved again. I really can't convey the immense feelings of aggravation the tech was experiencing as she again explained to me that I was not allowed to move. I apologized and we started the segment again....and yep, I was asleep about 40 seconds into it...which is crazy because I had coffee and some DayQuil about an hour before the appointment.

After my third falling asleep incident, the tech came in and told me that she was going to stop the procedure altogether if I couldn't stay awake. I issued forth more apologies and asked if I could take the headphones off. She hemmed and hawed because ear protection is used due to the noisy nature of the MRI machine...but, she said I could take them off...and it worked. With no headphones pumping in classical music and nothing but the obnoxious buzzing and banging around of the MRI machine, I stayed awake through the remaining segments.

When it was all over I tried to make some friendly small talk with the tech (and small talk is something I really, really suck at, but I felt bad about my Rip Vanwinkle like performance), because I felt bad about messing up her day, but she would have none of it. She just gave me directions on how to exit the facility and instructions to go home and take a nap.

Ouch.