After a solid celebration of Melissa and I’s 4-year anniversary on Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday morning feeling less than chippper (I’ll blame the 3 glasses of honey wine for that one). So, it worked out pretty well that I had an hour in the MRI machine to nap before heading in to work.

The original agenda had called for getting images of the right leg Wednesday morning, and then heading back to do the left leg at lunch Thursday (today). I was pretty happy that they were able to get both done Wednesday, hopefully meaning I can at least here some sort of news about the images obtained before heading back to Chicago-land for a week - but I’m not expecting any miracles.

I new going in that MRIs were way different and more involved than X-Rays, but I don’t think that your Grey’s Anatomys do justice for the kinds of sounds these machines make. Even with ear plugs, the thing was still pretty damn loud, and sounded like some really weird remix of a Kanye West/Katy Perry song. It also didn’t take me very long after starting the MRIs to regret having had my morning coffee on the walk over to the hospital. Knowing that I needed to lie still, I kept thinking that ripping as in the tube would have a negative on the images, so was holding some gas for about 45 minutes. I def did some major crap-dusting in the hallway once the nurses were far enough away that it wouldn’t be obvious that I was the offender.

I’m also glad that I checked at the nurse’s station before I left about the X-Rays that Dr. Kitchen had ordered for me. Apparently no one had bothered to check that the doc’s order sheet was double-sided, because they had to go back and retrieve the sheet to discover that I was in fact correct when I told them that I was supposed to be getting X-Rays as well. And, being slightly less involved than an MRI, they were able to just take me back and snap those pics off right away.

So now I’ve just got to wait to find out what my achilles/ankle photo shoot tells us about what’s happening in there. After having a bit of research on the whole calcific tendonitis thing, I’m not sure what would be the preferred diagnosis - calcific tendonitis or a torn achilles. Either way, I’ll be able to approach whatever treatment is prescribed with a better attitude knowing exactly what I’m dealing with.

Though I still dislike being in the weight room as much as I have been lately, I’m happy to at least be able to do a few lower body lifts without any pain now. In addition to leg extensions, I’ve been able to add low weight dead lifts and machine leg presses to me repertoire of lifts without trouble. However, since it’s the repetitive or over-stretching that causes the problem, I still feel like my achilles’ won’t be able to handle biking or the elliptical without feeling that I’m setting myself back. Something’s better than nothing though, right?