It was a SHARP marking pen!

Today I went for an MRI for my hip, as well as an injection, to help diagnose what exactly is wrong and what we need to do to fix it.  I am pretty claustrophobic and did not look forward to another closed MRI experience.  I usually take some drugs to help with the potential panic attacks that might occur.  But, alas, I did great!  No sweating, no images of being enclosed and trapped in a machine that will continue to close its walls around me, and no hyperventilating.

That may have been because I had a warm blanket, earplugs, headphones with country music playing and a wash cloth covering my eyes.  Not to mention the tech lady checking in every few minutes.  Or, we can chalk it up to the prayers and pleadings on my behalf to the Lord.

Now to the headline of this post ...

I am then ushered into a small, operating-type room where I have to have an injection while using the ex-ray machine.  This is so that the doc can make sure he gets the needle/tube into the right spot in my hip and release the medication.  Of course, being my sometimes funny self, I am joking around with the doc and nurses.  30 second time-out here:  my friend who drove me (more on that later) said she could hear me laughing when they opened the door to the hallway!

They prep my skin and all of a sudden I twitch and tighten up thinking he had stuck a needle in me to numb the area.  Yeah......that was just the marker marking the spot where the needle needed to go in! I insist, as they are all laughing, that it was a really sharp pointed marker and that maybe they needed to get a softer one for the next person.  The doctor clearly acknowledged his need to warn me next time anything touched my skin.

I live through the experience, leave my new friends and head out to the waiting room.  By this time I am starving and in great need of coffee, so we head out to breakfast before heading home.  I didn't understand why I couldn't have driven myself, although I admit that the company was nice to have.

After a few minutes I figure it out ...  my entire thigh from hip to top of knee is numb!  I guess they figure it wouldn't be a good idea if people drove in that condition.

So all in all, I lived through the experience with minimal discomfort.  That is until the numbing wears off!

Oh, and my dog JACK likes sweet tea.  How could I know that while resting outside and recovering from my rough morning that he would start drinking out of me glass of tea?  Good thing he didn't leave any backwash.