MRI Blues - long and probably boring.

Today I had my MRI scan.

There are 2 situations I really don't cope well with - loud noises and
closed spaces.

I get to the centre, fill in the various paperwork and soon get called
in to the room. I confirm I'm wearing no jewelry, no hair pins, no
dentures, remove my glasses and lay down on the bed of the machine.

Since I'm a lady of some substance, I don't have a *lot* of space on
the narrow bed. In fact, I have to put my arms over my chest/belly to
stop them from being 'scraped' when the bed moves into the machine.

The Tech warns me that there may be 'some noise' and to help mask this
I will be wearing some headphones playing the radio. Did I mention I
don't cope well with loud noises? He straps my head down to the bed
and locks it into a small cage, which is less than an inch from the
sides and front of my face. Did I mention I cope really poorly with
enclosed spaces?

After making sure the music is playing, and I have the 'panic button'
in my right hand in case I get too panicky in there, the bed moves
into the machine. And keeps on moving. Now, not only is my head
caged in one spot, I'm trapped inside a NARROW cocoon. There's not
enough room to have my arms either by my sides OR on my belly - I have
to leave them half-way up my body, pressed firmly into the walls all
along their length. Every breath I take proves to me how tightly
jammed I am in there as there's not enough room to take a deep breath
without pressing them tightly into my chest and belly. The cocoon
extends well beyond my finger tips.

Did I mention I don't enjoy being in tight places?

The Tech asks me if I'm OK. I tell him I'm not OK. He suggests I
take a few deep breaths and see if that helps. It doesn't. Do I want
to continue with the procedure?

No. But let's do it anyway. I need it done. He turns up the air
stream so I don't feel as if I'm choking. Too badly.

Now the noise begins. It sounds like a jackhammer, going off just
behind me, and all but drowning out the music. I want to turn and see
the roadworks, but I can't move. The cage is holding me firmly, and
anyway I'm in this tight cocoon that won't let me breath deeply, let
alone turn around.

Did I mention I don't like enclosed spaces and loud noises?

After about 5 minutes, the jackhammer changes to a click and buzz. At
least I can hear the music now. It's not music I actually *enjoy* but
it's something other than jackhammers and panic. 5 minutes later, the
bed changes my position a little (scrapy-scrapy arms), the Tech warns
me that the noise is going to start again.

Pound-Pound-Pound goes my heart, in time with the jackhammer behind
me. I try to breath slowly and evenly, but it's not working. I hate
closed spaces and loud noises (did I mention that?) but I need this
done. If I back out now, I'm going to have come back and do it again,
and I don't think I can cope with that.

Click-click-click-BUUUUUZZZZZZZZ and we change position again.
I keep telling myself I don't have to do this. I can quit any time I
want. Surely they've gotten enough ...Jackhammer time again. I find
myself begging any deity who might be listening to allow me to avoid
having to repeat it all with contrast medium. I don't think I can
handle doing it all over again...

The noise stops. I get to hear the end of the hourly news broadcast
on the radio. My Health Insurance is having a dispute with the
hospital group that is the only one that handles private neurosurgery
here in Adelaide. If I *do* need to have this operated on, we're
going to have a couple of thousand dollars extra to pay <sigh> but it
would be worth it to not have to handle Brain Surgery as a Public
Patient.

The bed rolls me out of the machine. The cage gets taken off my face,
the headphones lifted away. I'm free to go. No need for Contrast
after all...

I spend much of the next hour shaking with relief that this part of it
is over. Now I get to wait until the results come back. I don't know
if I'm hoping that it's nothing 'urgent' and therefore I can wait the
2 weeks until my next appointment with the doc or if it IS and I get
called in quickly. Both have their appeal, I guess.

Az

Mummy Az <manth RemoveThis @ozemail.com.au> writes:

 >Today I had my MRI scan.

 >There are 2 situations I really don't cope well with - loud noises and
 >closed spaces.
[snip]

At least it's over with.

I don't know if it's available in your area, but around the Washington
DC area there are seemingly incessant radio commercials for what the
scripts are calling "Open MRI" scans, which apparently don't have
the confining environment you're describing.

What bothers me about the Open MRI -- at least as it's being described
in the ads -- is that the ads brag that these are "High Field Strength"
machines. Nothing is said about just *what* type of field is being
used at high levels.

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid about things like this. Back in the 1930s
my father was doing research (at Princeton) and in that research part
of his left hand was exposed to both X-ray and diathermy radiation. The
resulting damage made it impossible for him to live in a cold climate,
and he collected a small disability pension from the university until he
died in 1970. One consequence of this was that he was a strong campaigner
to outlaw the stupid X-ray machines that once could be found in many
shoe stores.

Joe Morris<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->