Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A New Medical Adventure

(I feel badly having written the entry below, having now heard news of that earthquake in Haiti. My little headaches seem so trivial. And my fear of being trapped--see below--so, well, theoretical when compared with the dreadful reality in that poor, devastated contry.)

I'm taking my head to Beverly Hills this morning, to have it examined in an MRI. Why Beverly Hills? That's what I wondered. It seems that Kaiser outsources (one of those neologisms that I truly hate!) its MRI patients to this place in Beverly Hills. Perhaps there are more people in Beverly Hills who need such screening. Who knows?

It's about those headaches. Did I mention that I went to the Kaiser headache clinic a couple of days ago? No? Actually, the cluster series I was experiencing--and about which I'm pretty sure I wrote on The Buddha Diaries--seems thankfully to have come to an end; but they were so different this time around, so much less regular and, frankly, much less intense, that I was concerned. Hence the appointment with a headache specialist in Kaiser's Neurology Department.

I must say I was impressed by the department. The nurse/receptionist was bright and cheerful, and seemed actually delighted to put me on the scale and measure my vital signs. (I was gratified to note that I have lost ten pounds since before the holiday season; intentionally, I hasten to add. I have been eating more mindfully...) The doctor was excellent, generous with her time and attentive to every detail. She had me walk the line, tested reactions, tickled the bottoms of my feet. She tested my eyes, and worried over the blurring and double vision I have been experiencing. And decided that, all in all, it would be a good thing to get the MRI.

She was also thoughtful enough to ask if I am claustrophobic. I guess I am: one of my great nightmares is being trapped under tons of rubble. I had no idea that the scan might involve being trapped inside a tube for twenty minutes to half an hour, and was happy that there are alternatives, involving machines that leave one side open--and that I had a choice.

So I'm off this morning on this new medical adventure. More to come...

1 comment:

CHI SPHERE said...

Here's hoping that all is well and answer is discovered.