Monday June 9: MRI with and without contrast

- I check into my MRI site early in the morning and I see an 80ish-year-old lady with a patch over one eye being wheel-chaired outside.  The nurse and old lady are taking a break and looking at the trees outside.  I immediately panic and think, "Will I become like her?  I am too young for enucleation!"
- At the MRI place, the people at SHARP are super friendly and nice.  They give me some paper work to fill out and they go over what will be happening.
- I am lead by a very pregnant technician (are pregnant ladies allowed to be working with MRI's?) and told to change into a gown.
- I am given a warm blanket (as though it just came out of the dryer), head phones with a choice of what station I want to listen to on Pandora, and a pillow to lift my knees in a more comfortable position.  A portable button is placed in my hand to squeeze if I ever panic.  I can hear the pregnant lady's voice through my headphones, "Okay, Sandra, we're going to start!"
- I lay down and the machine squeezes my head in place so that I won't move.  My heart is beating fast.
- They place me half way into the machine to take a scan of my orbit and I squeeze my eyes shut.  Trying to hold still so the process gets done quickly.
- I feel like I am in a washing machine of overalls.  I hear a lot of loud banging as I listen to "Rude by Magic!"  Not bad though.  Strangely feel calm...
- "Okay now for the contrast."  They use a catheter and inject galadium inside my veins.  They have to hold my right arm to make sure I don't fidget because I told them I wasn't too good with needles.  I'm digging my nails into my palms as she pushes the galadium into my veins. It didn't hurt much (thank God) and I don't feel any difference in sensation.
- Same thing done, except Pandora isn't working so the loud banging seems is louder than ever.  I keep praying, "Please, please let it be okay."
- I go back to work to see my own patients, which I very much enjoy.

- I get a phone call that my blood results are all normal thus far, except Lupus is just a hair below borderline.  I am told by my neuro-ophthalmologist not to worry, I am still considered normal.  I have a sigh relief, but I still need my ANA results which is 97% sensitive to Lupus diagnosis.
- I also get another phone call that MRI came out clean!  But my optometrist says, "It's better to have an autoimmune disease than a mass."  I don't know how I feel about that comment.