The MRI (of Doom)
I didn't feel all that apprehensive when I first knew that I was going in to get an MRI. More curious and intruiged by the technology than anything else. I guess I didn't know that I suffered mild claustrophobia...
The technicians noted that it would be a long test since I was due for scans of lumbar and thoracic spine both with and without contrast (injection!). Ok this was awful so I won't get into details. The injection was the least of my problems, claustrophobia had me sweating and irrationally frightened. It was pretty much the 2nd worst experience of my life with the cystoscopy winning by a fairly large margin.
I'm fortunate to have a best friend that is a radiologist so I sent off my scans to him for a preview since my follow-up was a week out. Scott said he did note a cyst but he wasn't all that concerned about it with regard to my symptoms. But it was there, and it wasn't normal, so it was certainly something to think about. The cyst was narrow (iirc) but passed from T5/6-T9. Which means the middle of the fifth and sixth vertebrae to the ninth vertebrae of the Thoracic (middle) of the spine. It was on the inside of the spinal canal, and may be affecting the spinal cord, though that phase of diagnosis seems to have been ruled out.
We had both been expecting to see evidence of a slipped disk, something that would possibly have explained my symptoms while being relatively easy to fix. It unfortunately was not. I spent a few weeks thinking that this could have been the problem after the followup with my neurologist. She noted that it could be the cause as well, but I was going to need an MRI of the head and neck and an EMG.
The technicians noted that it would be a long test since I was due for scans of lumbar and thoracic spine both with and without contrast (injection!). Ok this was awful so I won't get into details. The injection was the least of my problems, claustrophobia had me sweating and irrationally frightened. It was pretty much the 2nd worst experience of my life with the cystoscopy winning by a fairly large margin.
I'm fortunate to have a best friend that is a radiologist so I sent off my scans to him for a preview since my follow-up was a week out. Scott said he did note a cyst but he wasn't all that concerned about it with regard to my symptoms. But it was there, and it wasn't normal, so it was certainly something to think about. The cyst was narrow (iirc) but passed from T5/6-T9. Which means the middle of the fifth and sixth vertebrae to the ninth vertebrae of the Thoracic (middle) of the spine. It was on the inside of the spinal canal, and may be affecting the spinal cord, though that phase of diagnosis seems to have been ruled out.
We had both been expecting to see evidence of a slipped disk, something that would possibly have explained my symptoms while being relatively easy to fix. It unfortunately was not. I spent a few weeks thinking that this could have been the problem after the followup with my neurologist. She noted that it could be the cause as well, but I was going to need an MRI of the head and neck and an EMG.
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