Warning: This piece includes accounts of sexual assault and rape.
It was the last place I wanted to be, but with a fever spiking 104 degrees Fahrenheit, I couldn’t avoid it. Unbearable pain shot through my body. Pins and needles pricked my almost numb legs. As a technician slid me into the MRI tube, I thought about leaving against medical advice.
I had been sick for weeks before going to the emergency room. Every day, I told myself it would be better in the morning, as I had done with every illness for years. But it didn’t get better this time. I didn’t know I was septic with an abscess on my spine — and literally fighting for my life.
The MRI technician, seeing my agony, gently removed my shoes.
“Try not to move, but press this if you have any trouble,” she said, handing me a small button connected to a long cable.
