I survived the donut.

We had quite a morning. Scott had a long meeting with his thesis committee and felt a little roughed up afterward. At the same time as his meeting, I was getting my hip roughed up in a hospital. I was there for my MRI - actually, an MRI and arthrogram. I don't think I realized that those were two separate procedures until I got there.

I got the arthrogram first. This involved getting a shot to numb my hip before sticking the most gigantic needle I've ever seen in after it (seriously, it was something straight out of a science fiction movie it was so huge). "You'll just feel some pressure..." Ever hear those words?! Yep, it was just like getting a spinal tap - except that it was in my hip and didn't provide any pain relief. I could feel the needle poking around until *ouch* it hit the bursa.
Dye was injected and some X-rays were taken to make sure the dye was in the right place. The pictures were pretty cool; the dye spread quickly. But I wasn't feeling very good.

Then I was put in a wheelchair and rolled to "the donut." I've had an MRI before, so I wasn't too nervous. I don't get very claustrophobic (I credit this to coming from a large family) and don't mind all the clicking and rattling (also credit this to large fam); after the painful arthrogram, the MRI was a piece of cake. Last week a friend of mine gave me a news column that her brother had written about his experience of getting an MRI. I'll admit that I almost started laughing when I was in the donut remembering his description of the MRI: "...in addition to the occasional pounding, there are two other constant noises. A distant chirping and a relentless rumble that sounds as if you're inside a washing machine during rinse cycle." He also described sounds of a machine gun and jackhammer, which I thought was totally accurate.

Anyway, the worst is over. Now I just have to wait.

Results come Tuesday afternoon. Stay tuned.