failure to launch (m)

Was scheduled for an MRI today.  Got there, filled out all the forms, waited 45 minutes for the technician to call me, got in the room, got on the table.  The table started moving towards the tube and I started to feel a little anxious.  It's just my knee, it will stop soon, I thought.  It kept going and I was up to my nose before the table stopped moving.  I pressed the Panic button.

What's the matter the technician asked.  "I'm claustrophobic and I don't think I can do this, in fact I know I can't," I said.  "The ortho doctor told me it would just be my knee that went in."  She scowled at me and explained that my knee had to be in the center of the tube with at least four feet clearance above my knee.  I'm 5'4".  Do the math.  Four feet above my knee brings us to my nose.

"Get me out....please."

Now I'm in between a rock and a hard place.  If I don't fix my knee, I can't exercise.  If I don't exercise, I will be counting points for about 18 more months.  Aaagh.

Got home and had to face my younger son who has had two MRIs himself.   Told him about my aborted effort.  "That's pathetic", he said.

My mother called later and asked how it went.  I told her it didn't happen.  She said she wasn't surprised as I used to fight her whenever she put a turtleneck on me when I was a kid.  She said I would scream and try to punch my way out of it.  She stopped buying turtlenecks for me.

I went in on a mission to get an MRI.  That's all I had to do and the job didn't get done.  I left without "checking the box" and for that, I feel like my mission was a failure.