My MRI appointment was finally approved by the insurance company! It was a nail-biting experience to the last moment.

The last time I had an MRI was two years ago. Technology is changing fast! Then I used to have to lay on a table and it sould slide me in to a small cubby hole in this noisy, clanging cavern. Now, they have something called “Open MRI” where they have expanded the cubby hole. It’s much more comfortable. It’s still clangs noisily, though. And the hard steel table isn’t much better. But I was thankful for the additional elbow room.

And MRIs used to be printed on film– those big black x-ray sheets that you see in the movies. Not any more! I was given a CD this time. All my photos of my innards are on disk now. I got to see what my spine looks like. I thought I’d share, because sharing is nice, right? Actually, I find stuff like this fascinating. Look how the body is designed!

These are photos of my spine, looking sideways. Those little white disks are the gel-like cushions between the bony vertebra. You can also see that one of them is squished and protruding. That’s what causes the pain- the disk protrudes out and presses on my sciatic nerve. All those years of tree-cutting and heavy labor probably weakened this area, I guess. So I need to again get that disk back where it belongs. Aren’t these images amazing!?

I’m doing better. I spend about half my day up and about now. I still get very tired and my oomph is still not full-steam yet, but I do feel better. :D