Tag: mri experience

MRI Time Again

So i had a 2fer last week Friday…had to go in for infusion #14 (time waits on no-one; can’t believe it’s been so long already) and did my neck & spine MRI on the same day.  The MRI was scheduled first, but they sent me in the infusion room for the nurses to set up my IV “so that i wouldn’t have to be stuck twice” – LOL!!!  (when they do the MRI, they inject me with a dye so that the lesions/scarring would show up more clearly so the thought is that they would use the same IV site that the nurses set up for the infusion.)  As  they say  down here in the south, “Bless their hearts”…they really mean well, but on the day that I’m only stuck twice I’m extatic! As it turns out, i was stuck twice to set up the IV – such good times.

Anyhoo, so i was about to go into the tunnel for the MRI and i asked the radiologist if i should settle in for about an hour and she said, “no…it’ll only take about 15 mins”.  15 mins????!!!!   She couldn’t be serious.  For real????  I’d adjusted my medication time so that i would fall asleep right about the time i was in there…i was skeptical and even wondered if she knew which areas i needed to have done but i didn’t say anything (i should have – if they didn’t get all areas i don’t think that Aetna will pay for another), i mean i was scheduled for a neck and spine MRI so she must know what she was doing.  I couldn’t believe it – about 15-20 mins later i was out!  i think that it was the best MRI i’d ever had done – even though i think that i dint insert the ear plugs properly because it was extremely loud in there (louder than normal, but then again, this wasn’t a normal MRI experience)!

No results yet; i thought that i would have been able toget them soon after, but i couldn’t.  I called this morning and left a message so hopefully someone will call me back soon with the results – fingers/toes/legs/eyes all crossed that there’s been no progression.

The Experience

So, have u ever laid(n?) on a flat, hard surface completely still (head immobilized by a hannibal type mask) in a cold room (thank goodness they give u a warmed blanket) for 2 hours????  That’s what i did on Saturday!

What an experience…The good news is that i must have fallen asleep because when i came out of “the tunnel”, i asked the technician how long i was in there and she said 2 hrs…there was no way i would guessed 2 hours…so i must been asleep longer than i thought.  I knew that i fell asleep but it must have been for a much longer time period than i thought.  Luckily for me, the noisier things get, the more relaxed i get so the more that i can sleep.  I mentioned before that the machine is very noisy – they actually give u ear plugs – so it was singing a lullaby for me each time.

At some point my head started hurting and i would shift it ever so slightly but it got to a point where it was hurting so much it was actually burning!  I guess they didn’t put enuf padding behind it…i actually remember thinking, “shit!  I should never have shaved my head…if i had hair, at least that would have given me some padding back there”.  Luckily, they had to inject me with a dye before taking more pictures so she was able to put more padding behind it to make it more comfortable.

MRIs are not physically painful, except when they inject the dye…but i absolutely hate to have to do them because they really can be mentally EXHAUSTING!

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