MRIs and Car Rides

I had my second MRI yesterday. It was an awful experience and I had a hard time. I wanted so much to push the button and get out of that machine. It wasn’t so much the enclosed space, but the body position was so painful. They had me crammed in with lots of padding so that I couldn’t move.

The first MRI showed me moving. My tremor and myoclonus was making it harder to get good images. This MRI also had the same injection that was put into my IV at the last few minutes of my time inside.

I was so nervous before the MRI but had been pre-medicated with prednisone and benadryl. This was meant to prevent nausea and vomiting which I experienced with the first MRI. The treatment worked, but I still felt horrible during and afterwards.

The image showed: Scattered intraosseous hemangiomas and Schmorl’s node deformities. I also have herniated discs at T6-T7, T8-T9, and T9-T10. At the very least, I feel vindicated and can know that my back pain isn’t imaginary. All I knew about my back was that I have Scoliosis.

Now, I have proof of what is going on with my spine and it will serve as a baseline to see how much change might occur later. I really hope that this doesn’t get worse, but I worry that it will.

When I looked up the intraosseous hemangiomas, I read that it was a rare benign tumor and I have quite a few of these. Most of them are slow-growing.

All of this is still very upsetting to me and have more things to worry about as my disease list continues to grow. I don’t know what the neurologist will say, but I hope he won’t push surgery because I’m not ready to let that happen.

I’m so tired and stressed from the experiences in the MRI machine. To make sure I get even more sore and swollen, we made a 10 hour drive today. We have traveled to see our kids and grandkids. As long as I can make it, I’ll make these awful trips. Seeing family makes it worth the pain.