Friday's News - MRI

This day did not go as planned.

It all started off with me driving 50 minutes in moderately heavy traffic (read: people who leisurely drive in the left lane and prevent you from passing) two cities away to have my MRI done. Upon arriving at the facility they tell me that I must be mistaken as they do not do MRIs. They point me towards the hospital up the road and advise me to check there. I call my referring RE's office and I am on hold for 10 minutes, so I hang up and go up the road. The hospital radiology department has no record of my name. My RE's office calls back and says, "Oh sorry. Someone must have given you the wrong information. You are meant to be at the hospital here." What??? I am in the wrong city? I was so hot at this point - literally and figuratively! It was 40 C/104 F already at noon and even with the air con in my car cranked to the max, I was still sweating. I begrudgingly drove another 30 minutes to get to the correct hospital and finally had my MRI.

It took about 45 minutes in total for the pelvic MRI, which I was surprised by. I thought with only having to image a small area that it would take less time than a full body MRI. I was too hot and tired to ask any questions though, and after 45 minutes of lying flat and still on a hard table my lower back was killing me as well (due to a previous SI sprain that flares up from time to time). Luckily I was able to pass the time listening to NPR, which helped with not thinking about the teeny tiny cavity I was in.

After my MRI, I do some yoga stretches (downward dog, padangusthasana) in the changing room to ease my back pain and then side step over to the cafeteria to stock up on some nuts, water and fruit before I hit the road again. It is now 3 hours since I left home, and I have to drive another 30 minutes to my acupuncture appointment which will last another 2 hours. Days like this make me really miss the days of public transit in the EU!

I make it to my acupuncture appointment just in the nick of time. I'm all bothered and irritated, but my practitioner is calming and serene. I quickly shed some of my stress. I hop up on the table and have many needles placed in carefully selected areas all over the front of my body including my head (acupuncturist says it is to lift my mood - ha!). I lie there for 30 minutes having a hard time relaxing. My mind is racing and the halogen lamp is bothering my vision even when my eyes are closed. My acupuncturist then removes all the needles, has me lie on my stomach and then places many more needles along my back including one directly in my SI joint. I practically leap off the table on insertion, but it magically starts to feel better immediately. I lie there for another 30 minutes and this time I am able to fully relax. I can no longer see the halogen light in my eyelids and I drift off to a floating type sleep with vivid images flashing before my eyes. Before I know it my practitioner has returned to remove my needles and I am now happy and buoyant. My stress is gone. How does acupuncture do that? It really is so incredibly amazing to me. I eagerly look forward to my next week's visit.

I should hear back from RE in about a week's time. Fingers crossed for good news and that we can proceed with our last IUI, and then IVF in October if not successful.

Post script: I'm on day 9 of my juice detox and it is going well. I feel like I have heaps of energy and have even lost 4 kg/8#. These past few days I have not lost anything more, so I have been a bit worried. I hope I can lose more weight while continuing to feel great.