I think you missed my point. I didn’t get medication and it all turned out fine. I actually kind of enjoyed it - I would love to hear those magnets howl around my head again if I could. Maybe a lucky suspect brain tumor.
The problem is, Barn Owl, that I live in Japan, the country of hopeless under-medication. For example Tylenol tablets in England come in 500mg tablets but here they are 200mg with a recommended dosage of one at a time. Iboprufen comes in 100mg doses as opposed to the UK’s recommended dosage of 200-400mg at a time.
Medical procedures such as stomach cameras and colon cameras are done with absolutely NO pain relief whatsoever. Childbirth is absolutely unmedicated until you need a cesarean. There is literally nothing available. A dwindling minority (but still out there and you need to check every single time!) of dentists will do ROOT CANALS with no anesthesia. Children generally come off worst here as the general theory seems to be that if someone is small enough to be held down then they don’t need pain relief. I have had to be vocal and unpleasant to protect my kids in the past.
So, having had a doctor openly laugh at me for bottling out of an MRI, I really am worried that the next time I need one I will be up shit creek. Because if I had to do that without medication that genuinely works then I will be a basket case afterwards, period. And I just KNOW that they will give me some minute, pointless pill and then try to force me into the tube anyway…
Oh, I am so sorry. I hope you can go home soon.
I had several brain and spinal MRIs several years ago. It wasn’t too bad. The technician had positioned a mirror just above my head. She advised that if I got claustrophobic I could look up and see her in the control room. Apparently it helped other people.
I didn’t get claustrophobic, but I can see how others could. You’re stuck in the tube unable to move with the roof just inches away from your face. The tightness of the tube didn’t bother me too much, but the noise did. It was loud in there.
I had a PET scan about a year ago. It took about 40 minutes to complete, scanning from my pelvis up to about eye-level. They did me feet first, so my head was only in the machine for about 15 minutes, and I didn’t get claustrophobic. What killed me was laying there with my arms above my head for that long. Boy did that get uncomfortable.
The coolest thing was that they sent me home with a disk containing all of the data. I took a bunch of the images and strung them together to create an animated GIF of my body slowly rotating, showing the the structures that had absorbed the fluorine-glucose mixture. If anyone wants to see them, PM me and I’ll send a link.
Since last May I’ve had three PET Scans, 3 or 4 CT Scans and an MRI. I think I dozed off everytime, including the MRI w/ all it’s weird, and often loud, sounds. During my last PET Scan I suddenly had to pee, I held it for awhile and finally asked the tech. if there was any way I could go to the bathroom. She said she’d have to start the last scan over if we stopped. She told me we had 15 minutes to go, could I hold it. I told her I could only try and worst case I would wet myself. She said that would be very bad for her, as my urine was radioactive and she would have to decontaminate the machine if that happened.
I made it, but I was in misery for much of that lst 15 minutes.
BTW, the last PET scan showed my lung clear of cancer. Not an absolute guarantee, but good news indeed. No surgery for now.
Hooray! Keep having those clear scans, ok?
No, unfortunately I’m a lifer, with a Japanese husband, two kids, a business and a mortgage!
It’s just down to me to pave the way of medicating painful stuff!
Actually, they are usually fairly willing to have a stab at medicating me - badly - but it unfortunately doesn’t bleed out to other patients, but rather reinforces the stereotype that “Foreigners are weak and can’t stand anything remotely uncomfortable but WE JAPANESE are tough and can gaman (endure.)” That bloody word has a lot to answer to!
I did the same thing as you, BarnOwl, during my head MRI. I concentrated on saying the rosary mentally. It worked and helped keep track of the time, so I didn’t feel like I was in there forever.
My 75 year old mother had one done and they forgot her in the machine! They went on break or something. She was calling for help, and no one came. She got herself out, eventually. She’s had plenty of MRIs and CAT scans and isn’t normally claustrophobic, but she pretty much wigged out on that one.
StG
[QUOTE=StGermain]
I did the same thing as you, BarnOwl, during my head MRI. I concentrated on saying the rosary mentally. It worked and helped keep track of the time, so I didn’t feel like I was in there forever.
My 75 year old mother had one done and they forgot her in the machine! They went on break or something. She was calling for help, and no one came. She got herself out, eventually. She’s had plenty of MRIs and CAT scans and isn’t normally claustrophobic, but she pretty much wigged out on that one.
She should have sued those morons!!!
BarnOwl - She did write a strongly worded letter to the hospital, and won’t go to their imaging center. But she comes from a less litigioius time, I think.
StG
BTW, I sent my evaluation of the PET Scan I had yesterday to the hospital.
My doctor hinted that I should go to a different facility, but I like the hospital so much
I didn’t take his advice.