MRI Adventure Story Time

My last MRI scan of Friday turned out to be a real adventure. This black lady comes in and proceeds to hassle the front office ladies about "She don't know about no stuff on that piece of paper." I tell my co-worker that I'll take care of it. I call the lady back, get her situated in the dressing room, and tell her that we need to go over a few questions.

BL:"I dun told that girl that I don't be knowin' about dem questions you be askin'."
K:"Have you ever been a sheet metal worker or had metal in your eye?"
BL:"Listen, I don't be rememberin that silly stuff. I was in a accident, and I got whiplash. I looked it up on Google and I'm gonna get paid." (rolling her neck as she's talking)
K:"Have you ever been a sheet metal worker or had metal in your eye?"
BL: "I don't know"
K: "Okay, listen. Here's the deal. Unless you can answer these questions, I'm not gonna scan you, because I'm not gonna risk injuring you or causing any harm."
BL: "Well, I got a headache from that whiplash. I read it on the computer."
K:"Have you ever been a sheet metal worker or had metal in your eye?"

Her memory got markedly better, and was able to answer the rest of the questions. I got her into the MRI room,and onto the table for the cervical and lumbar spinal scans. At this point, I was pretty fed up with all of her nonsense. She reminded me that I needed to do a good job, even though she wasn't paying for it. Well dear, that letter of protective for the lawyer's office, that you signed, clearly states that any settlement that you receive will have the lawyer fees deducted, then the scan, then the remainder will be awarded to you. So yes, you are paying for the scan, if you get a settlement.

Imagine my surprise when the first few images came back, and the cervical spine looked good. I'm not a radiologist, but I'm not stupid either. At this point, I decide that she's right. She needs me to do some of my best work. I tweak a few of the parameters, and make some crisp clear high resolution scans.

MRI is all about trade-offs. The trade off in this case is that the scan times have increased by about 50%. I'm chuckling inside because I've got this lady (I use the term loosely), with a headache, in the scanner for about 40 minutes instead of 25, and I'm getting some excellent pictures of her "whiplash" so that she'll probably lose her case. Some days it just doesn't get any better than this.

 Keep Right On Prepping - K