That Word: Degenerative
When you’re chronically ill, a single test result could change everything. (Or nothing.)
I originally shared this story at Stories We Don’t Tell in September 2019.
It’s 10:30 at night and I’m doing a final bedtime scroll through my phone notifications when I notice a text from Shields Imaging telling me that my MRI results are now available. So of course, I click the link.
I am squeamish. I have always been squeamish. I fainted once during a lunch and learn about back health because a hand-drawn picture of the spine was too graphic for me. I was rushed to the ER where a doctor told me that this kind of fainting is called vasovagal syncope. Something about the vagus nerve freaking out and your body looking for the quickest way to get your brain level with your heart.
Because I am squeamish, I decide to skip the images and just read the report. My cranial MRI is fine. This is a sort of relief because I’ve been wondering for months if I might have multiple sclerosis. Then I open the cervical MRI report and things get a little fuzzy. The radiologist has used words like “bone spurs,” “stenosis,” “bulging discs,” and I don’t really know what they all mean together.
And actually, I start to get that spotty vision and that whooshing in my ears that…
