so i know i need to type about the Ryan Adams shows from last week, but today i went to the doctor for a followup to the MRI i had done Thursday. he looked through all the pictures and didn’t see a labrum tear, or at least not one bad enough to require full on surgery. he said he saw something that was a little suspect, and told me to keep doing therapy (at home and the gym, not going to PT) and if i still had pain after a month or so, to call him and he could do a quick outpatient scope and fix the damage. my shoulder has felt light years better than it did a month or so ago, so the PT and being smarter about how i move it have definitely worked.

btw, the MRI on Thursday was actually an arthrogram. because labrum tears are hard to see in a regular MRI, they injected a dye into my shoulder so any tears would show up better. i had to go an hour early for them to inject the dye. the radiologist deadened the area then put some blanket type things up over my face so i couldn’t see the needle (which was probably a good thing, because i think it was probably pretty big). it didn’t really hurt, giving blood probably hurts worse, and i don’t think it’s that big of a deal. i had to wait an hour after they injected the dye before the MRI could be done. after the hour passed, they walked me back to the truck where the machine was. they laid me down on the bed thing and put my shoulder in some kind of contraption to keep it still. one of the nurses gave me earplugs because she said the machine was loud (and it was, so i was really glad for the earplugs). they moved me back into the tube and started the test. i was supposed to keep as still as possible which wasn’t too hard, although i was keeping my eyes closed because there was about an inch or two from my face to the wall of the tube. i think i may have dozed off, i have no idea. i think it lasted about 30 minutes before they moved me out of it. the nurse said a couple of the pictures came out blurry, but she said everything else went fine, and the number of blurry ones was no big deal. she said she took about 120 images. after it was over, my shoulder felt pretty stiff and sore, but nothing too bad. i went home and packed, then headed up to Tuscaloosa. more on that tomorrow.

also, today at work i saw an article on a plugin Mini. kind of expensive at $850 a month now, but hopefully soon i can get a car that requires no gas and i can plug it in overnight to use in the morning. combine that with eventually having solar power to produce electricity, which would also charge the car, and you have a completely self sufficient system going. the road trip aspect of plugin cars needs some work though. a range of 150 miles wouldn’t have done me any good this past weekend. if they can get the range up to 500 or 600 miles, they’ll have something.