random thoughts – Day 2,102 (Thursday) – imaging and baking

A tree in the hospital.

Finally, after months (no lie, from mid-September to now) of dealing with the weird neck thing, the MRI was done this morning. It meant being up at 6:00 a.m. to allow for coffee consumption and then arriving on the hospital campus to check in at 7:10. 

The hospital’s asphalt parking lot was covered in large patches of slick black ice in the area under the solar panels, adding an extra degree of difficulty to the quest of getting inside for the MRI without breaking anything. Inside, the walk from the entrance to the radiology department was quiet. Lit trees provided visual interest and a warm glow along the way. 

Never having had an MRI, all I knew about it was what I had heard anecdotally (no metal anything!) and what was in the patient preparation info provided. The information from the lab said it could be loud and there could be movement. Just like when I was under the drill at the dentist yesterday, I closed my eyes and zoned out. The earplugs and headphones playing classical relaxation music helped a lot with the noise. It was over pretty quickly.

I didn’t realize how anxious I was until the MRI was over and I suddenly and miraculously felt more relaxed. The neck mystery should have answers now, PT is done, and the dental work should be wrapped up in a couple weeks and now I can breathe and focus on other things. If the parking lot hadn’t been covered in ice, I might have skipped to the car. Caution prevailed. Enough things have been broken this year.

Being up so early and then back at the house by 8:00 a.m. made for a long morning. In a nice way. I might try the getting up early thing again. By 10:30 I was ready for lunch and reheated salmon and onions left over from Wednesday’s supper.

The commentary about the imaging arrived in my patient portal a few hours later with findings and “Impression: Minimal subluxations at C4-5 and C5-6; C4-5 moderate right neuroforaminal stenosis; Right perineural neuroforaminal cysts C7-T1 greater than T2-3.” Google came in handy for looking up basically every word and phrase in the findings and impression.

Under “Operation bake a bunch of things v. 2025,” today, brownies (which are not on the original list) were baked with white chocolate chips. Once cooled, they were cut and packed into containers which were crammed into the already full freezer.

Half the kitchen looks like a cyclone hit it. Muffin pans and the ingredients for baking and appetizers have been pulled from the pantry or straight from the grocery bags and have taken over a counter. The delay on making two of the recipes on the list (pecan turtle cookies and Mexican mocha balls) is more strategy and less procrastination because when I make them there is a tendency for me to eat most of them. Self-knowledge is a helpful thing.

Organizational efforts continued in the alleged stained glass and sewing room during the afternoon. It’s been a slow process primarily based on opening, closing, and rearranging the still too many boxes. There are several boxes of glass for stained glass projects that are now in one corner of the room and will need an orderly and convenient work station. There is a box with a spool of lead came and others with bevels, 12-inch square glass sheets, scraps from previous projects, and the glass grinder and tools. It doesn’t help that the three Christmas tubs are temporarily lodged in the sewing room and are in the way. Once repacked with the trees and decorations, those tubs can return to the shed and the stained glass station can be properly set up.