MRI - Pink Floyd And Alien Brain Scanning

Just back from the MRI.  What an odd machine!  Some say we are in a post-modern era.  Get an MRI and you'll realize that indeed we are NOT. 

The technician must deal with a lot of people who can't handle it.  I had no idea.  You have to wear earplugs with ear muffs on top of that.  There's the head devices to lock your head in.  They give you a bulb to squeeze if "something goes wrong".  After strapping you down and some gentle assurance, they gently slide you into the oversized alien-pod-like fat sterile white tube.

Once in, I had the intense feeling that I was being SCANNED.  There are about seven 3 minute 38 second sessions of what sounds exactly like something off a Pink Floyd album.  It's got ear-crushing ticks, whirrings, knocks and wavelike buzzings.  Each of the seven sessions, I believe, takes you further into the tube. I wondered if the first six were simply to warm you up to the idea of going all the way in.

For the most part, I was okay.  There were a few issues.  I made the mistake of drinking a coke this morning and had this horrible need to continuously swallow a lump in my throat.  I had to squeeze the bulb to beep the technician to tell her I had to swallow.  I also began to imagine that it was a way for aliens to analyse my brain or perhaps it was actually my psychiatrist who instigated this whole thing via "the neurologist" because maybe he was interested in my brain out of some vain curiosity.  I also began to twitch a little bit and the thought came to me that it might escalate and ruin the imaging.

I was hoping I'd at least see some sort of brilliant colors and patterns when I closed my eyes but didn't see any more than usual (as I just closed my eyes and had similar results - but was this the same it was before the MRI???)

I should get results in a week or so.  I am so tired of this year.  While the MRI took place, I thought about all my work on the computer.  There I was - in pain, in a tube, head locked, being scanned.  It all seems so ridiculous sometimes.  I'm afraid I'm not going to have the energy to pack for my upcoming trip to Washington.