My First MRI Experience
The actual MRI machine at the Westchester Imaging center
Following my recent accident with my head, my doctor and I thought it would be a good idea to get an MRI of just my skull just to make sure there was nothing to be concerned about. I had never gotten one before, and it was partly for that reason (plus the fact that my insurance would cover it) that made me want to get one.
It seems like in House, patients get MRIs every other episode; it doesn’t look very scary does it? They just put you in that tunnel of a machine and it starts scanning. Maybe it lasts for 5 minutes tops. So when the front desk lady asked if I was claustrophobic, I hesitantly said “no”.
Upon being admitted, I had to leave behind all of my metal devices naturally. I have a permanent metal bar retainer attached to my bottom jaw and was worried about that, but they said it would be alright. Since they were only scanning my head, they also said I could leave my belt on.
The machine was definately not as nice as the one in House, but then again, the one in House is probably just a prop anyway. I had to lie down on the table, and was told not to move because the machine would be taking lots of pictures. They put on some head phones connected to the radio because it was supposed to be very loud. Finally, the resident said that I would be in there for 20 minutes!!!
As I was entered into the machine, I felt that I was going head first into an orange abyss (the machine had an orange light). As more of my body went through, I could feel my belt start to lift toward the ceiling as it had undoubtedly become attracted to it. My head was strapped in, but even if it wasn’t, the hole was barely bigger than the circumference of my body. 15 seconds had gone by and that’s when I started to panic.
I wouldn’t say it’s serious, but I believe I do have a claustrophobic tendencies. For example, elevators freak me out, especially the slow ones that rumble a lot. Secondly, when in the car, I need some sort of air, whether it be the AC or opened windows. If not, I start feeling like I can’t breath, which can sometimes drive me into a semi state of panic. Anyways, back in the MRI machine, I started feeling that sense of panic again and could hear my heart beating. I tried taking deep breaths and closed my eyes in attempt to sleep, but that’s when the machine started making noises.
The noises were indeed loud. It kind of reminded me of the sounds you would think an alien aircraft would make. Tie that in with being stuck in a large device and someone might actually think they were abducted by aliens! There were about 4 different sounds the machine made from fast whirling sounds to staccato beeps. The weird thing was that the machine shook a lot and I couldn’t imagine how accurate the images could be if I was vibrating so much.
Despite my fear and inability to move, the 20 minutes passed surprisingly quickly. Needless to say, I don’t think I would like to do it again. I can’t even imagine how a fully body MRI would be like, if they even do that. I can’t wait to see my images though. It will be nice to see my anatomy and how it relates to what I learned in school!