Thursday, July 17, 2008

Radioactive Hip

I went for my MRI arthrogram today on my hip. They were running a bit behind so I got to listen to this lady tell me her life story in the waiting room til the nurse thankfully rescued me. She got me prepped and then a couple of docs came in and, after some explanation, located the right spot and shot the lidocaine into my hip. We all donned thyroid shields and they proceeded to inject the dye. I guess it was bound up when it was in cuz we removed the thyroid shields. They let me out into the hallway where I got to run up and down and see if it hurt. Damn it felt good to run! Oh how I love drugs! The downer is, if it didn't hurt, then it is most likely a labral tear. The good news is that means it's probably not a stress fracture (which I doubted anyway).

Next I was sent to the MRI suite where I was greeted by Aaron, the tech who did my MRI on my ovaries last year - about a year ago exactly! We joked about seeing each other yearly and that this was our one year anniversary. Now we're going steady! Hope I don't see him next year. They strapped me down, tied my feet together (so the hips couldn't move), put my headphones on (I chose Beatles music) and slid me into the tube. You gotta have a high tolerance for small spaces as the top is inches above your face. I thought about camping in a small backpacking tent - that and remembering when I did a Yoga Nidra class. I was in there for twenty minutes - but it did help. One thing I remembered from last year was my rings - they aren't pure silver like I assumed they were. Whenever they would shoot the rays (or whatever you call it) they would vibrate - a weird sensation, indeed. When all was said and done, they released me, and Aaron and I said our fond goodbyes and hoped this was the last time we'd see each other.

When I got back to the lab, I got Mattias to hold the Geiger counter to my hip to see if we could get a signal. We managed to get a light one going; when he put the probe on my arm, it was silent. Cool - in a nerdy, geeky, science way! Tomorrow I meet with Dr. O'Kane to discuss results and strategy. I'm thinking of asking if he'd sponsor Chris, Tracy, and me since we all go to him. We could get Team O'Kane tshirts - that would be awesome!

Update: No labral tear or stress fracture - just a really cranky psoas muscle - off for some rest, stretching and PT!

5 comments:

Journey to a Centum said...

Great news on your update! Sounds like PT for a while.

Laura H said...

Yah - I'm pretty happy about that! Don't know how long I'll be down but it could be a lot worse.

Unknown said...

Good news indeed! I am not sure I could handle 20 minutes in a small space like that.

Olga said...

Sounds like you escaped the bad part, but still need to take care of yourself!

Ronda said...

Good news Laura! Get better and back to running very goon. It was nice to catch a glimpse of you at WR50.