Day 299-300 of Sheltering In

Wednesday, Thursday. Wednesday I had my knee MRI. I’ve had lots of MRI’s shoulders, back, brain, all of them several times each, but the knee MRI was excruciating. I had to have my left leg absolutely flat. It was an open MRI and my head was right before, but not under it. Holding my leg flat like that with no movement for 2 hours was incredibly painful. I forgot my anxiety meds. I usually skip the morning and then take it an hour before an MRI. I took a 1/2 pill in the morning and was going to take the rest an hour before. Didn’t! Did my usual backwards counting, but it wasn’t helping. I was asked what kind of music I wanted (not that you can hear it much from the machine clanging, and you can’t dance). I chose classic rock. Here are the first few songs I was treated to while getting an MRI of my knee:

     1.) Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Gimme 3 Steps”

     2.) Journey’s “Wheel In The Sky”

I thought the first one was funny cuz it was an MRI of my knee. The second one was kinda funny cuz the machine was basically above me. Ok, ok, it’s just me, but I had to find some humor somewhere. They also played “Hotel California” and a Genesis/Phil Collins song I can’t think of. The rest is a blur because I was concentrating on counting backwards, while also breathing in through my nose and slowly out through my mouth. I needed to calm down because the pain was starting to cause my eyes to well up with tears. I fought it, I didn’t cry, didn’t embarrass myself. Thank goodness! I have to go back there in December for my annual brain MRI. I kept having shooting pain down my butt to my ankle. Sciatica. It was bad. I kept trying very slowly to shift my weight off the left side. I’d tense up my left butt cheek, then the right. I was doing this super slow, making sure my knee didn’t move. This alleviated the pain only slightly. I did call out to ask for a break but he didn’t hear me, or ignored me. The very second he started to say we were done I bent my knee. I was still under the machine, not much room, but damn! It felt good to bend it even though I couldn’t fully bend it until the table was moved back. The tech helped me get to a sitting position. My foot was completely numb. I held onto my walker and had to keep stomping my foot on the floor to get some feeling back. Normally when I’m done with an MRI I fly outta there as fast as I can. I sat there, still doing the anti-anxiety breathing. The tech lowered the table all the way because I had told him how I injured myself at my brain MRI getting off the table. He could tell I was distressed and in pain. He waited patiently and walked alongside me and walked me to the waiting room where I waited for my MRI CD. When I got to the car (which took forever, even though it was parked in front of the door), I got in very slowly. My wife could tell I was really hurting. I asked if she had any drugs on her. Painkillers! Not street drugs. She didn’t. I told her about how when I was in the machine, struggling with the pain I thought about having her drive me to Walgreens and get one of those ice packs that you snap and it freezes up and a bottle of booze. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We were far from home and were doing errands afterwards since we were out. We wouldn’t be home for 2 hours. I sucked it up and we skipped Walgreens and finished our errands. At the grocery my wife pointed out that my drink of choice was on sale. 🥃 Jack Daniels. I had Christmas money in my wallet, took out a twenty and gave it to her to pay for it. I took out some singles too since it was $19.99 + tax. I haven’t seen the price that low in a long time.

While I was getting ready to leave for my MRI, my daughter was first in line to get the Moderna vaccine. They were giving the shots in the community room of the apartment building where my daughter will be moving into. She got a tour and was over the moon! She just could not stop talking about it, though she did to give me an update on her items that were stolen while she was on home visit. She has a lock on her bedroom door, but all residents had to pack up all but 1 week of clothing because they were treating for bedbugs. All other belongings, even wall art, was put in bags in the basement. Apparently 1 or more people went shopping. These are just some of the items missing:

Nebulizer (machine for asthma treatments, cost me over $100 because someone broke her previous machine. I’m not paying for another. Either they do it or I call the Office of the Inspector General and file a complaint.)

Several boxed DVD sets, a bunch of DVD movies she borrowed from her brother and me.

Her Bible. (Who steals a Bible? Apparently they never heard of the 7th commandment. I told my daughter to have a random conversation at medication time the next morning. Something like “my Bible is missing. That’s stealing. The 7th commandment says “Thou shall not steal”. The person who took it broke a commandment. If that person puts my Bible on the dining room table some time today, I won’t tell staff about it and I won’t talk about it again.” Apparently the guilty party doesn’t care about the 10 commandments.)

About a dozen stuffed animals given to her by special people in her life. One of them she used to snuggle with when she’d had a bad day.

Cubs hoodie that isn’t a common design. We are thinking a staff member or maintenance person took it because if a housemate wore it, it would be obvious it was my daughter’s.

My daughter is working with the team lead to get these items replaced and a check for $100 to reimburse me for all the canned food and beverages I bought for her that were gone. I’m not holding my breath waiting for this. It took weeks to get reimbursed for the Nike duffle bag that was destroyed due to a rodent problem that was not promptly addressed. That bag was not cheap. The Nebulizer needs to be replaced right away. From the sound of her, my daughter may be starting to have bronchitis again, so she will definitely need it because Nebulizer treatments are better than inhaler treatments.

I can’t get in to see the orthopedic doctor until the 25th. The report from the MRI place was sent to him and my primary care doctor. I’m hoping my primary care doctor sends me a message in My Chart or calls me to let me know what’s up with my knee. If I tore ligaments I don’t want to make it worse.

Time to get some fresh ice packs from the freezer.

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