Yesterday I had to have an MRI. It was hopefully the last piece to the unsolved mystery of my stomach illness earlier this year. It is hard to explain how I feel. Of course I don’t want there to be anything wrong with me, but if you get a result that says, “all clear”, it means that I will probably never know what it was that took up space in my body and life for such a long time. I just want to move on already, I don’t want any more tests, etc.

I am not sure if any of you have ever had an MRI before, but let me tell you….what an experience. It wasn’t a horrible experience, but if you have never had one, it is hard to explain. Some people have only had to have a MRI on their knee or head or a part of the body that does not require you to go full body into the machine…mine of course was on my liver and abdomen….so all the way in.

I have watched Guy Fieri on the food channel visit restaurants where they are making their own saugsages, and putting the meeat into the casing….yeah, not a great visual, but yes, you go full body into the MRI machine just like that. I was ‘wrapped’ with these pads that had magnets (I assume) in them that would allow the imaging of my abdomen area to recieve the imaging.

My test was about a half hour long. Let me tell you it felt like a day not just a half hour. My hands were straight up above my head the whole time (with an IV in my right hand) and you can’t move while you are in there. You are also wearing headphones because the magnets swirling all around you and they are LOUD. When I asked if they play music, the tech said no. Which really, they are missing something on that…it would really ease the anxiety if you had music to distract you while in the machine.

I should mention, they give you a panic button. Interesting term, but of course totally necessary. After a half an hour of this you start to go a bit crazy. I didn’t have to push it because I was okay, but I am sure that there are people that need to be pulled out mid test and I get it. I was ‘this close’ to really needing to get out before they said I was done.

All in all, not a bad experience, but not one that I want/need/have to repeat again any time soon! LET’S HOPE!

On a funny side note, I just had to include the video below, keeping with all things Muppets this weekend. My nieces were singing a version of this song over Rosh Hashana and my nephew loved it and giggles and laughs and participates when we still bring it up at the table now.

This video is brought to you by the letters M, R and I – enjoy!