Where's My Lollipop?

I had my annual breast MRI today, which meant busting out the orange panties and spending some quality time lying on my stomach on a narrow table inside a narrow tunnel, endeavoring to remain perfectly still for a good 30 minutes or so.

This would have been substantially easier if I had not:

• had a runny nose from an inconvenient sinus infection;
• been stifling coughs from the same source;
• had an IV in my right arm;
• been lying with my head facing left, to the dismay of my still-tender back and neck;
• been surrounded by incessant clanging and clattering that was only barely blunted by the single earplug placed (not by me) in my upward-facing ear; and
  
• been taken by surprise when the nurse "pushed" the contrast medium through my IV rather than warning me that in a moment I'd feel a warm, flushed sensation in my groin (an odd and startling but common reaction, and one easily mistaken for a bed-wetting episode).

Zach had the pleasure of accompanying me all the way into the MRI room (although not into the tunnel).

It was just as loud where he was sitting, reading the paper and waiting for me to emerge.

He, however, got two earplugs.