Pain In The Neck

I've come to the conclusion that I know too many old people. Okay...maybe I should say older people. I know of two people who aren't what I'd call old...okay I would call Mike old but I was brought up to be respectful of my elders...that have had or are having neck and back problems. And I think it's wearing off on me or I'm having some dang strong sympathy pains.

I went to the doctor last Friday because I'd been having some severe neck pain and headaches for about three weeks. Why wait three weeks? Well it could be that I have a man issue...why go to the doctor when you're actually not feeling good but it was more like I thought I'd just slept wrong. So, I shoved the pillows all off my bed and slept with one. I tried using some fancy neck pillow. I gave up and just started taking a daily regimen of Advil. But, when the headaches started I figured I'd better have it checked out.

Well, the first thing he asked me was if I'd had any head trauma recently. I said no, but that I had accidentally hit my head on the window seal next to my bed. (And no...you get to wonder what I was doing.) It did occur about the same time but I really hadn't put it together that that might have caused this. Anyway, he feels around on me and says that I need an MRI of my neck and writes me a prescription for some pain medicine. (I have issues about taking heavy narcotics so I was leary and to be truthful I've only taken two since last Friday. They pack a punch.)

Well, the MRI was yesterday afternoon. Now, I'm not normally a claustrophobic person. And I'd had an MRI about three years ago when my migraines were diagnosed. It wasn't too bad. They gave me headphones with country music playing so it sort of drowned out the jack hammering of the machine. Well, no headphones this time. And I was in a different room and the table had a neck brace thing I had to wear. Also, they put a mask type thing over my face. I'm not even in the tunnel yet and I'm already starting to feel sick to my stomach.

I calmly asked how long this would take and then nearly flipped out when she said I'd be in there about 30 minutes. Seeing as how I'm 24 and big girls don't cry, I took deep breaths and started praying that I wouldn't flip out. I went in up to my chest. Okay...this wasn't too bad. I closed my eyes so I wasn't seeing just how trapped I was and there was a nice breeze in there so I thought I'd be fine. Then the jackhammer noise started. I wanted out! And then after the first round of pictures she pushed me in even further.

I tried to think of all kinds of things to take my mind off the sound, the tight space, and the trapped feeling. I thought about being on a beach with wide open space. I tried thinking of how I'd write this post. I thought about taking a nap. And then I started thinking about being in a casket. I guess I started to wiggle because the tech came in and said I couldn't move my legs and hands so much. After that I told her that I didn't like it in there and she said it's okay...most people don't. Anyway, I did manage to make it through the entire time without throwing up or flipping out...too much. When I got out of there I had to go and have some neck X-rays taken.

Talk about a pain in the neck. All I have to say is that I'd better have something wrong with me to justify those thirty minutes of hell in the MRI machine.