Good Morning Irish Lads and Lassies! Today is Sunday March 14, 2021. At the moment, I am resting in bed allowing my first dose of Rytary to kick in (as usual). This morning, I will have my second Covid test, since I am having an MRI in two days. This will be my first MRI ever. Since I have a pacemaker, there are many precautions being taken to keep me safe. Before I even get to the anesthesiologist, I am scheduled for a chest X-ray and a pacer check. I was super curious as to why I will need a chest X-ray. They told me that the anesthesiologist needs to see where the leads are connected to my heart from the pacer itself. So.... one chest X-ray coming right up. Can I please have that with a side of the Cardiac Wing? Once that is done, I will walk (all happening on Tuesday) over to the Cardiac unit to have my pacer checked (they will be looking for anything irregular with my heart).
Once my pacer check is completed, I will walk over to the Radiology clinic to get prepared for my MRI. I am very frightened of the whole process, starting with the fact that I have to have anesthesia. The thought of not having control terrifies me. Let's face it, PD is already trying to take full time residence in my body. It is all good until I have those challenging moments. It is during those moments where I feel completely out of control as I cannot stop what is happening on my own. Getting back to the business of the MRI, unfortunately for me, the only way they will get perfect images of my brain is for me to lay completely still in a tube for an hour. Being that I am extremely claustrophobic, there is no way I will be able to tolerate being squished in a machine with no way out. I would literally last ten seconds, if even that. My surgical team has made it crystal clear that if I move at all during the MRI, they will have to stop it, which means rescheduling everything.
The two choices I have are both scary ones for me. I either suck it up and try my best to stay still for an hour or I let them give me anesthesia and I deal with the aftermath of being put under (waking up nauseated, weak and probably throwing up). So I really have to dig deep on this one..... To be continued.....
In the Meantime, this was my view when I got to Stanford on Tuesday (I have now had the MRI and will discuss it in my next entry). These have to be the most exquisite Tulips I have ever seen! They were at least 3 1/2 feet high and their colors dipped in Heaven, here on Earth đˇ