After last night's fiasco, I was at least thankful that I got to my MRI this morning on time. It wasn't really bad at all. It took longer than I thought (I wound up getting to work at 12:30, and I thought it would take about an hour). The difference between the regular and open MRI is like night and day. It was much easier to deal with. The machine was about 5-6 inches above my face rather than one. I didn't have my shoulders squished, and could breathe. It wasn't even really all that noisy, with the earplugs; the noise actually helped me concentrate on not moving. I did my breathing exercises, and only got anxious a couple of times, once during a lag, and then when they put the contrast in, because they had a hard time finding a blood vessel and also I had to remind them about the latex allergy. (Funny, I can tell the difference between latex and nitrile gloves by the sound.) :) The one thing that I wish I had known before I went in: they do the images in fairly short bursts...the longest was about 5 minutes. I thought I'd have to stay absolutely still for 20 minutes straight.
Two weird things happened. One, my foot would, totally on its own volition, twitch occasionally. It happened several times on the right and once on the left. I don't know if the magnet can do that. I've always felt weird around big electrical transformers, but this was totally different. Afterwards, when I was getting my stuff from the changing room, I looked in the mirror and my neck and chest were flushed bright red, like little swollen capillaries, everywhere my skin was exposed...but only on that part of my body. I checked with the staff and they didn't think it was a reaction to the element in the contrast (gadolinium) but kept me around for a little while just to make sure. But it faded after a little while. It could just have been nerves, I suppose.
The centre sent me off with 12 films of various brain 'slices'. They keep the originals digitally, so the films are mine to keep and share with my doctor. I haven't any idea what they mean, of course, but I can verify that there aren't holes in my brain like one person kidded, and my brain is nicely bumpy. If I can scan one in, I'll put it up later. :) Anyway, that was my excitement for the day.
Personally, I think the only way to go is the open MRI. Maybe I wouldn't feel that way if I weren't claustrophobic and well over 200lbs, but I would find the other torturous. Of course, it was over $2000 (yay for health insurance), and I don't know if it's more expensive. But it's certainly more comfortable.
No comments:
Post a Comment