Well, that was different...

[ffutures]

Following some slightly weird results in my last blood test, I had an MRI today, fortunately with good results - my prostate gland isn't doing anything horrible.

There are things they really don't make clear before you have an MRI, first of all that you need to be injected with imaging fluid - some sort of chemical that makes MRI work better; not a huge problem for me since I have plenty of experience giving blood - and secondly how bloody uncomfortable the things are. Not painful, just really confining, and you are lying on a completely flat surface and can't move at all, which by the time you're done guarantees that you will have backache. Oddly, it wasn't as claustrophobic as I expected because I could see out throughout the process - I presume because they didn't need to scan my head. I don't know how much difference that would make.

Fortunately I don't have any metal implants etc. which might have caused problems, it occurs to me that a lot of the cyberpunk tropes are REALLY incompatible with modern healthcare. All of those implanted sockets etc. would really not go well with multi-Tesla magnetic fields!

Anyway, that's something to cross off my bucket list, and without having to go through the biopsy etc. which would have been the next step if things had not been OK.

Comments

[dormouse1953]

I've had a couple of scans for my prostate (each time followed by a cystoscopy, a lot less pleasant, but I have seen the inside of my own bladder - twice). Can't remember if they were MRI or X-ray. (The technicians leave the room whilst the scan is going on.)

They warned me that the imaging fluid would make me feel hot. But it was winter, so the room was cold. And I was wearing just my underwear and a gown. (I think I'd left my socks on.) So I was shivering and feeling hot at the same time.

[ffutures]

I think they keep clear for both - while x-rays are more obviously dangerous than ridiculously intense magnetic fields, unnecessary exposure to either is probably not a good idea. I wasn't warned about feeling warm so maybe yours was x-ray, it would be a different chemical. I could see out a bit but there wasn't anyone in my field of view, it's possible that they all went to another room once I was in the machine.

I really hated the gown - why don't they do up with velcro or a belt or something?

[julesjones]

Having had both an MRI (to see if I'd had a stroke) and CT cardioangiogram (to see if I was about to have a heart attack) last winter, MRIs make a racket and angiograms are X-ray based and have the contrast fluid that very suddenly makes you feel hot and feel like your bladder is about to burst - and in my case caused a panic attack, which was a very interesting experience because I wasn't actually panicking. Apparently lots of fluid being pumped into your vascular system very rapidly puts enough sudden pressure on the cardio part to irritate it and cause a panic attack in some people, even if the thinking part was until then going "Gosh, I've never had this sort of scan before. It's interesting how it works. And it's quieter than an MRI!"

At least nobody has wanted to put Tc99 into me with this bout of "What is wrong and is there something sinister going on?"

[ffutures]

Sorry, somehow missed this until now - oddly, I didn't feel any problems with the injection, maybe it's a different type or a smaller quantity for the sort of MRI I had.

[eledonecirrhosa]

I wasn't injected with anything when I had an MRI... but they only wanted to scan my leg bones.

It's the colossal racket that I wasn't expecting. The MRI machines never make that noise in the movies! :-)

[ffutures]

Definitely - like lying in a cement mixer crossed with a microwave.