Before I begin writing: do NOT try this at home! Also, I was not really inside a microwave oven today but I felt like I was in one, I hope that is good enough to start this post with. Because boy was I in a small container and boy did it get hot in there…

My mental and physical health are a mess, and one of the issues being investigated the past months is the large deviation in some major levels (among which the thyroid-stimulating hormone, testosterone and prostate-specific antigen). One medical examination that was very important this week was making an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) of my pituitary.

Magnetic Resonance Image scanner
Siemens Magnetom Essenza MRI scanner in our local hospital

Now that is a large machine to throw at my pituitary gland as it is about the size of a pea, hidden behind my nose and between my ears. The thing is, an issue with this little dot in my head could be the cause of deregulation of my growth, blood pressure and many other functions that are controlled by hormones.

Test person on MRI scanner table
A test person on the MRI scanner table

So there I rested myself on the moving table, my head enclosed in a head and neck coil, and sweating like crazy inside the small tube I was put through. The process is painless but because there seemed to be an error in the system (or in my head) they had to redo the imaging 2 times before they got an acceptable output. Somehow it looked like there was metal inside my skull that distorted the results but after taking a few x-ray pictures of my head the nurses concluded it had to be the machine at fault…

And now I just wait, and whatever the outcome, I am in trouble. If I have a tumor on my pituitary it will have to be treated meaning my hormone levels will deviate even more, and if my pituitary is okay I still have very bad levels of important chemicals in my body, meaning I have a bug somewhere else in my system.

I did not mind having an MRI taken so much, it is the outcome that scares me, and I could use some support to be honest…