When you are sitting on the imaging table, wearing nothing but your socks and two awkwardly designed hospital gowns, and the first thing the radiologist says to you, shortly after 'Hello' and 'So how are we doing today', is 'So, did your doctor prescribe you any painkillers for this?', it is definitely far too late to rethink that whole concept of reading about the procedure online and thinking 'hmm. it says there might be mild cramping. Oh, I don't need to take anything for *that*'.

Or in other words, I finally had my test this morning - the test that was the final follow-up to the thing I had done last summer. And in case the paragraph above didn't clue you in, it was not fun. Not remotely. And I really could have used a rather hefty dose of preemptive painkillers. If I ever have to get one of those again, I will know better. By the way, I sincerely hope I never have to have another one of those tests again. Just in case you were wondering.

I had intended to go to work directly after, because after all, it was going to be no big deal (what with the remote possibility of mild cramping - HA!), but after I was done and the nurses were commenting on the fact that I was looking a bit more pale than when I first came in, and all I could think about was how quickly I could get home and commence with the better living through chemistry (aka Tylenol), I decided that it probably made more sense to just call in sick instead. If I ever have to do this again, I will make sure it is scheduled at the end of the day instead of at the beginning (again with the hoping there will not *be* a next time), and I will also consider maybe having someone drive me there and back, because driving while you are pale and shaky and in a wee bit of pain is probably not the wisest thing to do. And it doesn't help that my trip home took a lot longer than it usually might, because they were doing roadwork on the freeway overpass and there was a lot of waiting until bored men holding stop signs finally let the very long line of cars go by.

The good news is that Tylenol kicks in fast, and aside from some residual twinging, I was feeling much more like myself after a few hours, so I took advantage of being home and caught up on some knitting (I'm up to ten of twenty five squares for my mom's afghan done now), and can look back on it and find the humor in the whole process. But lying there on the imaging table this morning, trying very hard to remember to breathe because holy crap, ow, ow, OW, laughing about it was really the last thing I could imagine trying to do.