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Blogs by Larry M. Lounsbury
Claustrophobic 2/26/2007 11:55:41 AM
Another Blog that my wife wrote. I don't really consider myself claustrophobic...usually. I first discovered that I may have this affliction just a teeny weeny little bit a good number of years ago when I had to have an MRI done. You are made aware that your doctor can give you a mild sedative before the procedure as apparently quite a lot of people don't like getting this test done. I was offered, but pooh-poohed the idea as being ridulous. Needless to say I regretted my decision. What a horrible contraption that thing was. It was like a giant cigar tube. And the best part of it is, the thing you lie down on moves electronically. Now, pardon me if I'm skeptical, but have these people not heard of power-outages? Why can't they just shove you in and out...there's less chance of something going wrong that way? I got ready for this exam, looking all sexy in these little gowns that tie in back. Oh, and why do they make the ties so far apart? Conveniently there's never one anywhere near the parts that need to be covered, resulting in the flashing of butt cheeks. When I was all ready for this test, the guy gives me a set of heaphones to wear as "It's going to be a little bit noisy." He even let me pick my favorite radio station, but alas it wasn't meant to be. I lost my little set of headphones that he gave me. It made me so mad. As they were inserting me feet first into this tube, the wire from my headphones must have got caught on something, because they were abruptly ripped from my ears and I couldn't do anything about it as I had no room to move so I couldn't reach back over my head and save them. I did have a little button I could push if I wanted out, but I resigned myself to my fate. I know there are many that probably don't mind this test one bit. I on the other hand HATED it. It was so noisy, actually it sounded just like a jackhammer. I believe I was in there over half an hour, but I swear if it had been one minute more I would have been forced to do something drastic, I would have had to push the red button.
That incident happened probably almost 10 years ago, and I have had no other claustrophobic experiences that I can think of...until recently, during my tanning sessions. There I am, lying on the tanning bed, music blaring, goggles on, totally oblivious to everything around me when...CRASH. My god, it scared the hell out of me. The lids on the tanning beds have hinges that allow you to close the lid basically as much as you want, that is if they are in proper working order. I usually close mine almost all the way, but not quite, but on this particular occasion, it decided to close for me. I tried opening it up a few inches to where I like it positioned, but it wouldn't stay. No problem, I'll just put my foot on the edge and balance the damn lid on my toe. That worked for about 5 minutes until my toe felt like it was going to break (the lids are heavy). There really was only two other choices left...get out, or let it stay closed. I chose the latter, but let me tell you I was fighting my demons the whole time. The only way I could stand it was by pushing up on the lid about every 30 seconds, just to make sure it would still open and I wasn't going to be trapped. Oh, and another ironic thing. About 2 weeks ago it was so cold, my lips stuck to my teeth resulting in some of the skin on my lips getting ripped off. This time I burned my lips because the lid was so close to my face. You can't win I guess
