19 April 2011

MRIs and Shots -- When will this end?

It's been a year since my last set of MRIs, so I spent my morning in a metal tube. Up to this point I've had about four MRI sessions, but I've never been as anxious as I was today. After last year's mix-up -- I sat in the machine for 90 minutes only to be told a week later that I had to do it again because the scans weren't clear enough -- I was worried that I would be spending time in that tube for nothing.

Luckily, I've been hanging out in a supportive MS forum on Ravelry. The women there keep encouraging me to speak up when I deal with healthcare providers. Usually, I keep my worries to myself, but this time I told the imaging tech what happened last year. She made sure that the radiologist on duty took a look at the scans before I got off the table to make sure they were good. She also spoke to me before and after every section ("I'm done with the head", "I'm starting the neck now") which made it easier for me to gauge how long I had left. I have no natural sense of time so without some sort of touchstone, 10 minutes can feel like half an hour to me. All in all, the session went much more smoothly than I anticipated, but I'm glad I don't have to do it again for another year.

Something else I wish I could give up for another year are my Rebif shots. The auto-injector has made giving myself the shots much easier, but I still wish I could skip them altogether. It may sound crazy to some, but everything about M's senior year is stressing me out. Is she going to graduate? Will we order pictures/class ring/yearbook? How are we handling prom? Don't even ask me what college she is going to! With all the other stuff in my life, Rebif is an annoyance that I want to eliminate. I have to keep reminding myself that it would be selfish to stop taking the shots if they will prolong the amount of time I will be ambulatory and able to take care of myself. Still, the little girl in me this week is stomping her feet and shouting, "I don't wanna!"

4 comments:

Hailey @ Me and My Boys said...

Oh man, senior year. That was such a fun time, but it's definitely got some stresses attached to it! Especially for the parents! I can only imagine how hard it must be to have the added annoyance of health issues too. Just keep taking care of yourself; you'll thank yourself later!

ps. the garage looks great! ;)

Hailey @ Me and My Boys said...

pps. someone's pants ended up in our back yard. Josh was over and said he'd take them to yall. Hope they belonged to one of you. lol.

Dani In NC said...

Yeah, cleaning out the garage is what we do as soon as the first nice weekend shows up in the spring. This year we had the added incentive of trying to pare down and organize so that everything can have its own spot. We are doing the same thing inside the house. So far, it has made it easier for the kids to help me with the housework and keeps me from feeling overwhelmed.

As for the pants, I was wondering why there was a pair of pants on my porch when I left for work this morning :-).

Laurina Sigmon said...

Dani,
I totally can sympathize with you 'I don't wanna'. I went through this with all my pregnancies and postpartum feelings. It wasn't as bad giving myself the shots when I was pregnant because it least it was for the baby.
After I gave birth it became "Well, the baby is fine. Now it's just me it will hurt if I clot".
I had to think about worst case scenario. For me it was - this could potentially kill me and I would leave Doug with 3 children under the age for 4. For you it's keeping you ambulatory longer.
Either way, wanted to stomp my feet and scream multiple times too (umm, usually at least a couple time a week).