Yesterday, I had my first ever MRI. Not just any old MRI, but a "Left hip MRI arthrigram", which basically means they inject this special die into my hip before doing the MRI.
Why, you may ask, did I need an MRI? Well, I'm glad you asked. About six months or so ago I started experiencing this hip pain. In the joint, really...the leg socket on my left side. It only hurts when I move it certain ways. Normal walking or sitting it is fine. I went through twelve weeks of physical therapy, which improved my range of motion, but did nothing to actually eliminate the pain. My doctor thought it was just tendonitis, which it apparently wasn't. So, off to an orthopedic doctor, who requested the MRI.
Getting an MRI sounds more impressive than it actually is. Mostly, it's boring. But you know when they show people getting one on television? They make it seem like the space is fairly large. I can think of an episode of House where a girl actually crawls out of one. But let me tell you, there isn't room to crawl. I think I had maybe 6 inches above my head, and that's it. My arms couldn't even stay by my sides comfortably.
Anyhow, the MRI was fine. Although, twenty-five minutes of staying perfectly still gets old really fast. But it was the injection of the die into the joint that was horrible. First off, I'm very ticklish. Which means I'm very sensitive. Just to have them clean the area before they started tickled. Then, they inject local anesthetic. They warned me that it feels like a bee sting for a few seconds. Nevermind I've never been stung by a bee for comparison. But, once the needle went in, I have to say...I never want to be stung. Because it hurt like the dickens. (Okay...I'll interject right now that I have no idea why a "dickens" hurts, but I thought it would be fun to use that phrase.)
It was at that point I thought that maybe I would have rather just lived with the hip pain. And it wasn't even over yet. Once they numbed up the area, next came the "big needle"...the one that goes all the way into the joint. The physician's assistant doing the job jabbed it in and, once again, it hurt like the dickens. I flinched and groaned, and he said, "Oh, did you feel that?"
Uh, yeah.
So he said he needed to inject a bit more anesthetic. Which, of course, hurt like the dickens. Finally, he finished by injecting the fluid with the dye. Which, as you can imagine, hurt like the dickens. Although in this case, it wasn't quite as bad...more like a bad ache.
Then it was over. Had my MRI. Got dressed, and walked out of there.
Of course, as the evening progressed, the anesthetic wore off, and my hip was in a lot of pain. (I won't say it this time, but can already tell me how much it hurt, can't you? Like the...) I could barely walk. This morning is better. Still sore, but returning to normal. But I still think I would have rather lived with the pain.
