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Oct. 17th, 2001 01:53 pmWell, yesterday was very interesting. First off, I finally got through to a human being at the DMV to check on my license status. Guess what? It is valid! I can go back to driving! Made an appointment to see Dr. Waltuch for my regular blood draw and check to see if I'm still alive visit. The only concern is an odd bruise-like thing on my side, in the area where I had shingles a few years back.
We also got the car back, and Rose and I went to the supermarket to pick up my Trileptal and she needed a few things to eat. It felt so damn good to get behind the wheel again! Even if the brakes were just a touch grabby.
After parking the car in the garage, we all piled into David's truck and headed south. Rose was visiting some friends in Sunnyvale, and I had an appointment for a MRI at Stanford. But first, we ate! We hit the Chili's in Menlo Park, and I had the steak fajitas. Oh, my. They were good! They only problems were that the salsa was more soup than chunk, but it was a nice balance between hot and flavor, and Rose's chicken pasta was served a little on the chilly side.
So, off to Stanford. For once, they were able to get me in early. If you've never had a MRI, let me describe it. You are shoved inside a massive rotating magnet, and sensors build up a 3-D image of your body. This was a simple head and neck, so I was only in the tube for about 45 minutes. Your view as the patient is best described this way: I now understand how a bullet feels just before it is fired. You have to keep very still, and it is loud in there! There is the constant "thump-thump-thump" off the main pump, and before each scan there is a series of hollow "thunks" as the scanners change post ions. Then the actual scan starts. It can only be described as the sound of a jackhammer heard through a wall.
My scans were divided into two parts, the second section required that I have contrast in my veins to highlight the blood vessels in my brain. I flinched when the technician said he was going to get a doctor, since it has been my experience that most doctors can't give injections worth shit. They also tend to ignore people who know their own veins, and just go for the elbow. The veins in my elbow are dead as far as drawing blood from them goes. But this lady was an exception. Nice clean punch in my forearm.
When I was reclaiming the metal stuff I had taken off before the session (you really don't want to bring metal into a magnet that strong, as I discovered when my steel wedding ring began vibrating like mad) I glanced at the tech's computer. There was an image from my session. I need to have this. It was an image of my brain near the front of my skull.
You can clearly make out the brain, my nasal passages, and my front teeth. But spookiest of all is my eyes. Floating in their sockets are these two ghostly orbs, and you can even see the irises on both of them. All off this wrapped by my skull.
Besides the obvious use as a new webpage picture, I want to make a t-shirt of it. On the front will be the un retouched image with the words "This is my brain." On the back, the same image with the brain area replaced by the Grateful Dead's thunderskull lightning bolt. The text? "This is my brain on the Dead."
We also got the car back, and Rose and I went to the supermarket to pick up my Trileptal and she needed a few things to eat. It felt so damn good to get behind the wheel again! Even if the brakes were just a touch grabby.
After parking the car in the garage, we all piled into David's truck and headed south. Rose was visiting some friends in Sunnyvale, and I had an appointment for a MRI at Stanford. But first, we ate! We hit the Chili's in Menlo Park, and I had the steak fajitas. Oh, my. They were good! They only problems were that the salsa was more soup than chunk, but it was a nice balance between hot and flavor, and Rose's chicken pasta was served a little on the chilly side.
So, off to Stanford. For once, they were able to get me in early. If you've never had a MRI, let me describe it. You are shoved inside a massive rotating magnet, and sensors build up a 3-D image of your body. This was a simple head and neck, so I was only in the tube for about 45 minutes. Your view as the patient is best described this way: I now understand how a bullet feels just before it is fired. You have to keep very still, and it is loud in there! There is the constant "thump-thump-thump" off the main pump, and before each scan there is a series of hollow "thunks" as the scanners change post ions. Then the actual scan starts. It can only be described as the sound of a jackhammer heard through a wall.
My scans were divided into two parts, the second section required that I have contrast in my veins to highlight the blood vessels in my brain. I flinched when the technician said he was going to get a doctor, since it has been my experience that most doctors can't give injections worth shit. They also tend to ignore people who know their own veins, and just go for the elbow. The veins in my elbow are dead as far as drawing blood from them goes. But this lady was an exception. Nice clean punch in my forearm.
When I was reclaiming the metal stuff I had taken off before the session (you really don't want to bring metal into a magnet that strong, as I discovered when my steel wedding ring began vibrating like mad) I glanced at the tech's computer. There was an image from my session. I need to have this. It was an image of my brain near the front of my skull.
You can clearly make out the brain, my nasal passages, and my front teeth. But spookiest of all is my eyes. Floating in their sockets are these two ghostly orbs, and you can even see the irises on both of them. All off this wrapped by my skull.
Besides the obvious use as a new webpage picture, I want to make a t-shirt of it. On the front will be the un retouched image with the words "This is my brain." On the back, the same image with the brain area replaced by the Grateful Dead's thunderskull lightning bolt. The text? "This is my brain on the Dead."
