A meltdown prior to an MRI isn't a pretty thing to have for sure, so what could be worse than freaking out prior to your MRI? Having a witness to the meltdown...who happens to blog.
Yesterday I had my 3rd MRI this year, and holy magnetic resonance, Batman, I've got 2.5 months left in this year, so I could possibly squeeze in at least one more before the calendar rolls us over into 2013 (biting sarcasm in its purest form fully intended). Seriously, these MRIs are getting mad old, but yesterday's MRI experience was spectacular!
A woman in the waiting room was obviously not happy to be there. She started out by pacing back and forth. She then began rocking from foot to foot, which isn't unusual
I was obviously staring at this point (I couldn't help myself), and she caught me staring, so I smiled, and turned back to the magazine I was reading. She decided to sit down. She sat next to a gentleman babysitting his grandson while the kid's mother was having her MRI done. She began repeating over and over again, "This is ridiculous, just ridiculous." I don't know if she was talking to the gentleman next to her, or herself. The gentlemen wasn't saying anything, which leads me to believe she was out of her tree.
More pacing again. The pacing went on for another minute, then she picked up a magazine from the basket on the floor, gave it a split second look, then threw it (literally, she threw it) back in the basket. At this point she was making me itch. I don't know why, nerves I suppose, but I was itching.
It was less than a minute after throwing the magazine that she threw her purse, maniacally, into a chair. Then, she picked up the purse again, looked inside, threw it back into the chair like she meant to kill the thing. I mean, you do you, girl, but this scene has moved from quietly amusing to disturbing as hell. I wanted to draw my legs up into my own chair and start rocking back and forth.
Turns out, crazy train wasn't even waiting to have her MRI. She'd already had it. She was waiting for the technician to bring the CD of her images out to her so she could drop them off at her doctor's office. Her display of unzipped psychoville drama was merely impatience at having to wait.
I know that MRIs can be a nerve-wracking experience--I've had 3 of them so know about the nerves--but on behalf of those who have to witness your full-on unglued interpretive dance sequences, please ask your doctor for some valium before your next MRI. Thanks.
--Fortuitous Observer
