I never expected anything unusual when I went in for my routine MRI. Just a dull ache behind my right ear that wouldn’t go away, and my doctor thought it might be a sinus issue or a pinched nerve. Standard stuff. I even brought a book to pass the time.
The MRI room was cold, sterile, humming with that faint mechanical buzz that seemed to settle in your bones. I lay still on the narrow bed as the machine slid me in, feeling a little ridiculous for being nervous. I’d done this before. Twenty minutes, tops.
