trying to keep a smile
Went to the doctor today to get my MRI and I requested a copy of it. I will post the picture on the site as soon as I get a chance. I am not in any shape or form qualified or certified to draw conclusive medical information from the MRI photographs, but according to the research I have done on the subject…..I am screwed. 
The trip to the doctors went well. Driving an automatic vehicle with your left leg is not that bad if you have driven a manual transmission vehicle and you are sure you can mentally handle the task of remembering which pedal is gas and which one is the brake. Not that I would recommend anyone else do this, but if you do do it, test your braking and acceleration in a safe place like an empty parking lot first. The pressure you apply to the pedal is a very new feel for your left foot and it takes a moment to calibrate your left foot to its new job. The first time I went to apply my breaks I felt as if I was going to jettison myself via windshield, luckily there were no cars behind me.
Well I got the MRI offices parking lot a noticed there were three medical buildings all on different ends of the parking lot. I saw one that was labeled Orthopedics, so I figured I would park as close a possible to that one. as luck would have it, there were no close parking spots, the only few spaces left were in the farthest back corner of the parking lot where people park their expensive 60k up up vehicles to prevent the less fortunate percentage of the population from carelessly dinging the doors of their, monetarily speaking, “house on wheels”.
Well I maneuver into my spot after nearly getting T Boned by an Aston Martin, and I made my way towards my MRI office. With my crutches digging deep into the reddened and tender area under my armpits that they have created, I made my way across the parking lot and between cars around to the front of the building. By the time I got there I was already sweating an in slight pain and discomfort from the crutches, which at this particular junction, are by far more painful than the injury they are there to support. I make my way into the building and to the receptionist desk to get checked in, and upon finding out that I am there for an MRI, she grimaced and apologized and said that the building I needed is next door. Next door also happening to be on the other side of the parking lot! I made the long painful trip to the other building and got checked in.
For those of you who have never had an MRI, it is a bit unnerving at first. First you fill out forms asking you about any shrapnel or other metal pieces you may have in your body and then you are told to remove everything from your pockets that might be metal. Then you are taken to a room with machine in it that looks like it is highly capable of producing a time travel portal and you are told to lay down, relax, and most importantly, don’t move……for a half an hour. Then you are given head phones to prevent you from being distracted by the noise. This is the unnerving part, you are sitting almost waist deep in this huge machine and all of a sudden, you see some indicator lights come on and a couple number flash across the dashboard…and then you hear this weird noise. Its almost as if there are some gears turning in this machine that are stuck or misaligned and causing a terrible vibrating noise to be made. It was almost enough to make me want to slide out and dive out of the door to shield myself from the impending explosion. But the tech came in over the headphones she gave me and notified me that those noises are normal. WHEW!!!
Now the long wait for my doctor to call me and possibly tell me my leg looks like a frayed knot and I need surgery. I felt really bad about being so negative about this whole ordeal after hearing two stories. The first story came from the physical therapist that trained me on my arm guillotines a.k.a crutches. He told me about a guy that was Wake Boarding and had a quick wave came under his board before he could realize and alter his position and pushed both of his feet upwards and snapped BOTH of his AT’s at the same time. The other story came from a guy who I have known for a while that has probably had more surgeries than he has had birthdays, and he is in his 50’s. He got a bad case of Rheumatoid arthritis at a young age and he has had surgery on his elbows, hands, fingers, spinal cord, neck, chest, stomach, legs, ankles, stomach and probably a few I have missed. He recently found out that one of his knee replacements was loose and his bones in one of his legs were deteriorating. He had to go into surgery to replace the bone in his thigh and in his calf and get a new knee replacement and his whole leg had to be cut open to do this procedure. He is in good spirits even though he will still be in the hospital for another couple of weeks because he will finally be able to walk regular again, something he has not done in over 15 years. All this and I am complaining about 3 inch cut, some stitches and a little down time? I will go on trying to keep a smile on my face through this whole ordeal.