Tell me about your experience with MRI

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I’m scheduled for my first MRI. After all the health problems, etc. I’ve had, it’s amazing that I’ve gotten to 46 years of age without one.

My head will not be in the machine, they’re doing an MRI of my right hip. So when my doctor’s nurse was scheduling it, she asked “Will you be needing sedation?” and I said “What?” “You know, sedation. Will you be needing sedation? If so, you’ll need someone to drive you”. Well, hell, it’s an MRI. Why would I need sedation? So I asked her that, and she said “Well, it takes a while, and you have to be very, very still; so if you’re the fidgety type, you should be sedated”.

Well, in fact, right now, not only am I typing, but I’m playing with my right sandal with my right foot, and kind of bopping in time with my background music (soundtrack from Godspell, thanks for asking), so I said, yeah, I guess I’d better be sedated.

But I have no idea what to expect.

Hints, tips, experience or advice you’d like to share?

2

I had my ankle MRI’d last year. It took almost an hour. I just lay there being really bored. If it hadn’t been such a noisy machine, I would have fallen asleep.

3

I had one. It’s not bad. They gave me headphones and my choice of music. Then they asked me to lay still, which I did.

I assume sedation would be required for people that are claustrophobic and can not handle being in an enclosed place. I just closed my eyes.

4

I had an MRI of my head to make sure I didn’t have a brain tumor. (Migraines.)
I wasn’t nervous about the MRI itself – I can lie still for an hour – but I was very scared of the possibility of a tumor. So the operator asked me if I’d like to listen to the radio on the headphones. So I said sure. She asked me what I’d like to hear. I named a local classical station, thinking some nice symphony would be just the ticket.
So on go the headphones, into the tube goes Sigmagirl.
And on comes the announcer:
“And now, our salute to John Cage.”

5

I have had two MRIs on my knee due to a snapped ACL.
The first was in an older generation machine, confined space , noisy and generally not comfortable. The second was in a much newer generation machine, the hole was large, I didn’t have to get naked, it was quite enough that I almost fell asleep and it had a little countdown timer so you could see how long each sequence was lasting, which was useful.
On the newer machine the sequence of events was to get moved in or out a few inches, the MRI would make a sequence of clicks and clunks for about 30secs, then would make sustained oscillating hum for about 3 minutes (this was the time to stay stationary). this was followed by about 20 secs of silence then the table moved and back to the random clicks and clunks followed by 3 minutes of humming. rise wash repeat for a total of about 1/2 hr. YMRIMV

6

I had some nagging knee issues, and after nothing showed up with x-rays, they did an MRI on it.

First it is an AMAZINGLY strong magnet. I was wearing this (OTC) knee brace, and the guy asked if it had any metal in it. I didn’t think so, so we proceeded with the brace. Immediately after I had been rolled in, the guy rolled me back out. “You’ll need to take off the brace - it contains metal”. (This is the fun part), after I took off the brace, the thing was practically leaping out of my hand to go fly back into the MRI machine ! Even on “idle” there was this huge magnetic field !

As to the MRI itself, keeping still seems to be key. And it does take a while. Some people had warned me that it is loud. There is definitely noise, and it’s not terribly loud (IMO). But after a while it does wear on you. Like being near noisy machinery for a long time.

If you’re claustraphobic, it may be problematic - it is kind of a narrow tube. There’s plenty of light, so it’s not like a cave or anything. But there’s also nothing to look at except the inside of the tube.

So you lie there, trying to estimate how long it’s been, and how much longer it is going to take. Nothing to look at, and an annoying buzz/hum droning on. And you’re trying to relax and remain as still as possible. That’s about it.

7

Ask for the sedation, girl! I have had it with and without and with is much more pleasant. Without, all I could think was “I am a big woman in a small tube.” They had to take me out, sedate me, and then wait an hour and lead me in, smiling and drooling.

It will help to have your head out, though, so maybe you will be ok. I had my ankle done without sedation with no huge problems, although it was boring and harder to endure than, say…dental work.

8

I’m not sure if it was an MRI, but it was one of those imaging systems where they stick you into the big donut thingy for a while. I didn’t have any trouble with it at all, which surprised me, as I’m claustrophobic. They had me in long enough to image my brain and my chest, and I was fine the whole time. I didn’t have any sedation or music or anything…just the sound of the machine and the voice of the gentleman who was running the show. Except for a moment when they thought they’d spotted an aortic dissection (it wasn’t), the experience was almost relaxing.

9

3acres, that was probably a CT scan. Much easier to endure than the tube of hell that is the MRI. :slight_smile:

10

I’m a big guy and very claustrophobic. When I had an MRI for my lower back last year they doped me up with Valium and I still spent the whole time in the MRI machine on the edge of a panic attack. Several times I was within a second or two of screaming, “Let me out!” The only thing that got me through it was the thought that I’d have to start all over again if I couldn’t hold it together…

If you aren’t claustrophobic, though, it shouldn’t be a problem.

11

I had what they referred to as open-air MRI for my spine, last year. Basically they only cover the part that needs to be scanned. It did take a long time, but I didn’t find it claustrophobic.

12

This sounds like a CTScan to me. I’ve had many, many of them, thanks to the fact that my kidneys suck donkey dicks.

Thanks for mentioning music, guys! I don’t know that the imaging center will have radio available, so I’ll be sure to take my mp3 player with me!

Brynda, I’m not typically claustrophobic, nor am I as sensitive to benzodiazapines as a lot of people; but I’m asking for sedation, anyway. I have a friend willing and ready who will drive me, so, why not?

13

I am not claustrophobic, either–except MRIs. It’s a darn small tube.

14

That’s basically why I requested the sedation; I’ve never really experienced any length of time in a space that small. It’d be a bitch to learn that I’m not claustrophobic except for this circumstance, and then have to do it again.

15

I hate enclosed spaces like this, too, but I had an MRI on the same place a few years ago, and it really wasn’t bad at all. My head was out, which was the crux of the matter. They also gave me headphones and I listened to the Dixie Chicks for the whole thing.

However, when in doubt, ask for the sedation :). It can’t hurt.

16

Check with them first. You will not be able to bring your MP3 player into the magnet room as it will
A: Be violently sucked into the scanner, and
B: The magnet is so strong it will erase the hard drive.

OTOH, you may be able to plug it into their system in the control room.

Depending on what kind of scan they’re doing, the noises will range from innocent thrumming on up to sounding like you’re in an unbalanced washing machine on the agitate cycle while three guys are beating on it with mallets and jackhammers. I just can’t think of a better way to describe the rythmic cycling of humming and clanking and banging.

17

I worked for a neurobiologist for a while many years ago (fun job - too bad it was funded by grant money). He was doing research into pain and how it is processed by the human nervous system. MRI machines at the time were just barely getting enough resolution that we could start using them for brain activation tests, so the idea was to strap someone into an MRI, subject them to pain, and see what parts of the brain fired up. By measuring the blood flow, you could get an idea of what parts of the brain were working, but you are talking about changes on the order of about half a percent here, not an easy thing to detect.

I had designed all kinds of torture equipment (I mean, uh, valuable scientific research equipment) but none of it would work anywhere close to an MRI machine, so I had to come up with ways of torturing people in a controlled fashion while they were in an MRI machine.

Someone had to be the first guinea pig in the machine, so since I had a hand in designing a lot of the tests, I volunteered to go first. Keep in mind, in order to tell if a part of the brain is being activated, that part of the brain has to be in the same place on each scan, which meant that my head was literally strapped down to the table with a face mask kinda thing holding it in place (don’t worry - they won’t do this to you). I also had to have my head inside the machine, and machines back then were a bit more closed and claustrophobic. Fortunately, I don’t suffer from claustrophobia, so this wasn’t an issue.

We did a baseline scan, followed by six tests under stimulus (a fancy way of saying I was being tortured while scanned) with a resting scan (no torture) in between each test.

From what I remember of the machine, it did a lot of POCKA POCKA POCKA sounds followed by BRRRRTTTTT BRRRTTTTTT as it scanned. A lot of loud pinging in your ears, but not that bad, IMHO. The hardest part for me was holding still, not so much during the normal scans, but during the stimulus part of the scans (you can’t do pain research unless you are actually experiencing pain).

So, consider yourself lucky. You are only getting one scan, you won’t be strapped to the table by your head, and no one is going to be torturing you while you are in the machine. Of course you are also getting sedation, which takes all the fun out of it.

At the end of it all, I got out of the machine and went back to see the pictures. The researcher I worked for said “Good news. We found a brain.” Heh. Funny guy. I got to keep a copy of the scans (one page worth - not the entire study), so I can prove to people that I do in fact have a brain.

18

I’m getting one tomorrow on my knee, at the same place that did it last time I busted this knee. Mine was open air, and they stuck lots of foam wedges under and around my knee to keep it still. It took about 45 minutes, and my back started to get really sore from not being able to move at all during that time. Sedation sounds great, but they probably won’t let me have it since I’m planning on driving myself. Good luck, hope they can fix your problem quickly once they find it with the MRI!

19

I’m not claustrophobic, but the MRI I had for my back did bother me. I was put in head first, so all I could see was the top of the tube, and I started feeling like I as in a coffin. I got a little panicky but managed to hold it together by telling myself I was on a plane, since the noises and the lighting kind of reminded me of one. It seems to me I was in there for about 20 or 30 minutes.

A friend of mine had his girlfriend come with him and hold his foot so he could get through it.

20

I like getting MRIs.

It’s dark and I can’t have my pager or phone in there with me.

Uninterrupted rest and meditation!