Into the tunnel

I went to the doctor on Monday and they scheduled me for an MRI/MRA today. I was a bit nervous as it is because I am sometimes pretty clausterphobic. I go in and I am thinking that I will be fine because I used tanning beds all the time in Dallas and it is probably similar. I had to put on one of those hospital robes and take out all of my piercings. They laid me on this extremely uncomfortable slab of plastic that would go into this machine. The man put a foam block under my calves to prop my feet up and put these headphones on me. He gave me this little oval shaped ball to hold and if I needed him I could just squeeze it. He puts this face mask looking thing over my head that had a mirror on it so I can see my reflexion in the window outside of the tunnel. He leaves the room and I can see his sillhouette through the window as I start to go into the tunnel. As soon as I was eye level with the beginning of the tunnel, I immediately felt that ball fit snuggly in my hand and thought about squeezing it. Instead, I decided to close my eyes and listen to the music. Then the machine started. Let me tell you it sounded like someone was using one of those construction drills on the top of the tunnel. It was so loud I could barely hear Cyndi Lauper's high pitched voice singing about how much fun she wants to have. Then it changes and suddenly someone is shooting a machine gun at my tunnel. I had to lay completely still and not jump every time a new freaky noise started up. At one point it changed to what sounded like a fire alarm. I am deathly afraid of fire alarms. (completely different post) I imagined that everyone in the building had evacuated and were now standing outside by the curb watching the blaze while I was abandoned in the tunnel about to burn alive. At this point I looked through my mirror to check and make sure I could still vaguely see him through the window. He was there. I could see my toes and wiggled them a little bit just to remember that I wasn't completely trapped. I saw another sillhouette next to the man. I felt extremely uncomfortable because I hadn't painted my toes in a week and the polish had chipped a little bit. They were staring at my feet and talking about how disgusting they are, I just knew it. I wanted to move my feet to a less noticable 'in your face' area, but I couldn't move at all. The vulnerablity of having my feet right there by the window for everyone in the office to see was almost unbearable. Forty minutes later, he pulls me out and gives me a shot to pump my veins with some kind of liquid and puts me back in the tunnel. I go through the entire process again. The very last noise was the worst, it literally sounded like I was standing underneath a tornado siren. The tunnel started to shake a little bit, and I thought it was going to collapse on top of me. I quickly planned out the best escape. I was going to wiggle out of the head gear that I was trapped in, shimmy down the plastic board, and run like hell. Just as I finalized my escape route, the machine stopped suddenly. The man came in a couple seconds later and freed me. It would be safe to say that I will no longer ignore the chipped nail polish on my toes.