As you may have figured out, I’m not going to link to anything tonight after the ordeal I went through running around today. First of all was getting up way too early for a guy used to working until 3AM, a 0715 alarm to catch a 0828 bus then the trip to the ATM and the bike shop. All the parts are back in the house now. After the very quick and easy exchange to get the bike parts I stopped of at a C-store to grab a drink to go with the lunch I had to eat on the run, between trains and busses. I had lunch at a normal lunch time, just before noon, than caught the bus that took me to about a mile away from my destination. I walked that mile with no sidewalks and lots of puddles left over from the rain the night before, then spent about an hour filling out paperwork and paying co-pays.
Then the real fun began, as their MRI machine is so loud that they give you earplugs for it. Between the loud noises and the shifting magnetic field I had a bad case of vertigo inside the chamber which made my strategy of remaining completely still by way of meditation tricky. There was some kind of pump that made a “shoop, shoop” noise in the background that I could hear over the MRI machine and through my earplugs that I used as my meditation focus, and thanks to all the training on meditation I have been doing the past few years I was able to remain completely still inside the tunnel.
Then the pain began as I had to have an MRI contrast agent injected to make my blood vessels stand out better so the doctor could determine how vascular this particular lump is. This is important to determine if this is some kind of slow-growing cancer, or just another lipoma. Well the tech tried to use my right arm, the one with the rolling veins and I ended up feeling like a pincushion as he repeatedly stabbed at vein after vein, until he finally got a good one in the back of my hand. Then he injected that contrasting agent. You know they really should think about getting that stuff somewhat close to body temperature, that expression “felt like ice in my veins” was literally true today. Then I got to spend more time meditating, this time trying to ignore how much my arm hurt along with all the noises and wanting to scratch my nose.
Another thing, for a long time after I got out of the MRI machine I had no sense of direction. Near as anyone has been able to tell I am part of that minority who have a magnetic sensory organ located inside the inner ear, which allows me to know which way is north fairly accurately. That won’t be known for sure until they do the autopsy after I die, but given how dizzy having my head inside an MRI machine made me I think they will probably find it.
Finally they got their pictures, and I will hear back from the doctor shortly and find out when and where the lump is going to be removed from my neck, and I will be able to put my helmet on and ride any bike I want from the garage.
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 