MRI Scan

Went for my MRI scan this morning. Was made to put on green-brown robes before being led into a room where I was briefed about Stage 1 of the procedure. I was to have my shoulder cleaned, and then have my shoulder joint injected first with a local anaesthetic and then with a certain fluid which may cause my shoulder to feel heavy and possibly painful. Obediently, I received both sets of injections. As the fluid went steadily throb-a-throbbing from the tube into my shoulder, various images flashed through my mind, not least of all the fight scene from X-Men 2, where Wolverine plunges a syringe of adamantine into Lady Deathstrike, killing her.

After that was done, I was moved to the imaging room for Stage 2 of the procedure...to be actually scanned. There, I was offered earplugs by the nurses and then helped onto the flatbed. I was advised to lie really still, and keep my eyes shut. And then slowly, the flatbed slid into the hollow of the MRI machine, with me on it, like a space-traveller docking into his pod.

And then the fun began. The noises generated by the machine were peculiar! They sounded like a fantastical but rhythmic orchestra where laser beams, cicadas, sleigh bells and mechanical drills comprised the instruments.

I spent a full forty minutes inside the gently vibrating machine. With my eyes shut, I was enveloped in darkness and surrounded by the odd symphony, and I was intensely aware that I was confined within a very small volume of space. The thought that I could be claustrophobic ran through my mind, but it was a silly thought, however imaginative.

The results of my scan won't be out so soon. Meanwhile, my shoulder is aching from the entire experience.

When I got home from work in the evening, I discovered that my virtual Army Commander country had been wiped out by an enemy alliance, and my virtual Travian village had been ransacked and razed by enemy invaders. Sigh.