Claustrophobia x2

[Teresa]

Three loud alarms sound at the beginning of each image series, consecutive and from different directions.  They are sounds I associate with danger, with nuclear reactors exploding, bomb raids and airplanes going down.

 

The narrow tunnel is longer than I am, a white coffin lit from the inside though how can I know this with my eyes squeezed shut?

 

I hold tight a small rubber ball attached to a wire, a "panic" device I have been instructed to squeeze if I experience any trouble.  My heart is slamming as a series of images are taken, thirty seconds of Do-Do-Do-Do-Do.... forty seconds of D0/Cluck-Do/Cluck-Do/Cluck.... before a more intense five minutes of BUZZ/DO/Do/Cluck-BUZZ/DO/Do/Cluck. 

 

Another four imaging segments sound off unique pulses, then comes the finale, four minutes of rapid gunfire.

 

~~~

 

I'm having trouble breathing because my body is a solid block of fear, my mantra continuous:  Don't move...Don't move.  My index fingers are numb from pressing so hard against the yellow foam ear plugs, to keep out the noise, the sudden alarms.

 

I work to calm myself, picture soldiers in foxholes, real bullets zipping over their heads.  Then I'm flying miles above the Buzz-Clucks, no sound but the wind, beside me an iridescent white bird, Jonathon Livingston Seagull.

 

Just as I ask if this is heaven, here comes the BUZZ/DO/Do/Cluck-BUZZ/DO/Do/Cluck.

 

When it's over a man in a lab coat rolls me out of the tunnel, takes my squeeze ball away, won't talk or smile, then I notice the scars on his shaved head, dark purple, fresh.

[Bill Floyd]

I tried thinking of it as an adventure.  No go.  Thinking of the noise as containing hidden music.  No go.  Easily one of the most frightening experiences I've had in the past ten years.  The first time I didn't realize it would be so bad, so I refused the sedatives.  The second time I demanded them.

Hope you don't have to repeat the experience any time soon.  Good writing, though. 

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

The first MRI is always the worst.  I've had many and it gets better.

[Gita]

Getting buzz-clucked is no fun. But look how you turned it into fodder! Maybe that's what we all should do to comfort ourselves during unpleasant procedures!! Think about 6S and how we will entertain our friends.

 

[Javed Baloch]

Have never experience an MRI myself, but I am sure it cant be a pleasant experience, and it sure can't possibly feel like heaven.
Nicely done. And especially liked: "Just as I ask if this is heaven, here comes the BUZZ/DO/Do/Cluck-BUZZ/DO/Do/Cluck."