Ghetto MRI

My ankle has been giving me tremendous problems lately and pain has been unbearable at times and always swollen the size of a tennis ball and sometimes even like a grapefruit, so went to the ankle surgeon on Monday and he told me to come back to his facility this evening to have an MRI. So, I asked if they had their own MRI machine and they said yes. So, when they called my name to come with them, and asked me to bring my coat I was a bit puzzled, and then stupified when I asked why and they said we were going OUTSIDE. I said, "Outside?" And she said it was a traveling unit.

Now hubby takes great pains to make sure I do not walk on ice and snow this year since I had the spinal fusion and the ankle surgery and still in therapy for all that. He dropped me nicely at the door of the clinic and now this little girl has me traipsing around the building through ice and snow and bitter cold to go up onto the lift on the side of a semi-trailer that opens up like a garage door and inside looks like a set from Mission Impossible. (See photos above.) It was so cold and slippery. I was hanging onto her, but I am sure if I would have slipped she could not have held me up.

Once inside, it only took a few minutes for the place to warm up enough to do the scan and I went along with it because I thought they would give the doc immediate results, since they came all the way there, etc. Well, after my scan, the older guy escorted me back to inside the clinic and he was a bit stronger if I did slip. And when I got to the desk they told me I would have to make another appointment for a WEEK later to go over the results. I asked what am I supposed to do about the swollen and painful ankle that is making me walk funny and messing up my gait so my back is pulling awkward and causing it to spasm and knot up. Well, they tried to say that they have no control over the reading of the report and yadda yadda yadda and that is when Jon got involved. He said that after $97,000 worth of back surgery, and thousands spent on ankle surgery and therapy that waiting a week was not acceptable and demanded the phone number of the MRI radiologist and he was going to call them that evening. Well, suddenly they went and got the doctor and he came out and was all apologetic and called me back to an examining room. He sent someone out to the truck to get the MRI disk so he could look at it. I mean, come on...he is a surgeon for crying out loud and uses these MRIs when operating on people. Don't tell me he has to have a radiologist explain it to him. Well, he looked at it and said there is fluid in the joint and then there is an area that looks like another tear. Crap! So, he said there wasn't enough fluid to go through the pain of aspiration so he gave my ankle an injection of cortisone (YEOWW!) and then wrapped it up in this black lace up and velcro brace that I have to wear for the next two weeks and no therapy for the ankle till we see exactly and officially what is going on.

Still have to have the official report from the radiologist which will determine if they have to go back in and fix something again. I hope not!

And if I ever have to have an MRI with these people again I am going to tell them I will go to the hospital or this other MRI center to have it done. That was just plain ghetto to make a person with a bum ankle walk all the way around a building outside whether snow or no snow. Crazy!