MRI Experience

I had to get an MRI today. [Nothing serious.] I thought I had gotten an MRI scan before, but it turns out what I remembered was just a CT scan (for something completely unrelated). An MRI is a much longer procedure.

The first interesting thing about this procedure is that the MRI is not in the office building where I signed in and waited, but rather, in a big truck trailer outside. You have to ride a lift up about five feet to get to the door. Inside the trailer looks like a very small office, and is cold.

The nurse/tech had asked me all kinds of questions before taking me into the trailer, including if I had had any surgery on my heart, brain, or eyes, if I was allergic to anything, and whether I had any metal in my eyes. Huh? Metal in my eyes? She was going through the checklist, so I didn’t get to ask what kind of metal someone might have in their eyes.

I had to leave all of my stuff (cell phone, wallet, etc.) in a basket, of course, but I didn’t have to change clothes. The MRI machine, itself, looks like a Star Trek photon torpedo tube. (Only a small number of people reading this will get a good idea of what it looks like from that description, but it’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw it.) I laid down on a sliding rail, with a cushion under my knees.

Lying on the rail, the nurse/tech asked me if I was claustrophobic. She gave me a squeeze bulb, like they use to check your blood pressure, to squeeze if I had a problem and needed to come out of the MRI machine. She gave me a pair of earplugs and I inserted them. The earplugs kind of confused me – this machine wasn’t making any sound at the moment, and it looked like a normal, but big, piece of doctor’s office equipment, so I didn’t expect it would be noisy.

The rail table slowly rolled back into the MRI machine, my head going in first, and I was surprised at how really tight the tunnel was. I fit in it just fine, but I can’t imagine how they’d get a large person in there. I mean, the top was about three inches from my nose, and my elbows were probably just two inches from the sides. I don’t think I could have moved my arms from across my chest to above my head.

There was a little speaker in the top of the tube, right in front of my face, and that’s how the nurse/tech communicated with me. “Okay, I’m starting it. This will take about forty-five seconds.” The speaker was loud in my face, so maybe that’s why I needed the earplugs. Then there were several loud thumps under me and the machine started humming. So that’s what the earplugs were for. I was surprised at how noisy it all was. The machine looks so space-age that I expected just a light hum or beep.

When the scan was over, the nurse/tech said through the speaker, “This next one will last about thirty seconds.” Then again with the rapid thumps and vibrating humming.

The scanning was easy, and the volume was not disconcerting, but it was just very different than I expected. When that scan was finished, the nurse/tech said, “That’s it for those. Now this next scan will take about four minutes.”

What? When I had a CT scan, the whole thing was over in about sixty seconds. Oh well, I could wait in there another four minutes. The only thing starting to concern me was that my legs were not completely comfortable. When I had laid down, with the cushion under my knees, I sort of held my legs up a bit instead of fully resting them down no the pillow. Not a problem to hold up for a couple minutes, but they were already starting to get uncomfortable.

The machine loudly thumped, clicked, hummed, and thrummed for a few minutes. I shifted my head just slightly, enough to turn my eyes to see a bit more up and down the tube. I couldn’t see down because my arms across my chest blocked that view, but I could see a little up above my head. My head was near the far end of the tube, so I could see a small area at the back of the trailer, behind the machine. I could see a ventilation shaft, what looked like plumbing tubes, and a drape of shear fabric.

The few minutes passed and the machine’s racket quieted down. The nurse/tech announced that the next step was going to take three minutes. Geez, how long does this take? I thought. Mentally, I was doing fine, but holding my legs up without being able to move them for fear of screwing up the scan was now fully uncomfortable.

The thumping, clicking, humming, and thrumming this time seemed to be taking on a tempo. It sounded like some kind of experimental, industrial, heavy metal music.

Thump, thump. Clickclickclickclickclick. Thump. Hummmmm, thrummmm, hummmm. Thump. I imagined the humming saying, “daaa lot, daaa lot,” and eventually turning into, “taa daa, taa daa.”

The sounds and vibrations eventually died down, and the expected announcement blared in my face, “Good, good. This next one will take about five minutes.” The thumps and clicks started before I managed to say, “Can I shift my legs a moment?” The sounds stopped and I assumed that meant the nurse/tech heard me and stopped the machine, so I shifted my legs what little I could in the tube. Once I settled again, the machine started up back up.

My legs were more comfortable now, and I began to accept I might be in this contraption for a long while. I thought I could doze a little, despite the loud mechanical sounds. The five minutes seemed very long. It just kept going and going. I heard the music of the sounds again, and I was just starting to close my eyes when the machine powered down.

I looked at the speaker, expecting to hear how many minutes the procedure would continue, but after a few seconds, the rail bed started pulling me back out feet first. Once out of the torpedo tube, and retrieving my stuff from the basket, I saw the computer screen with some MRI images. I was impressed—I could plainly see my internal organs and bones.

The nurse/tech explained she couldn’t talk to me about the images because that is the doctor’s place. She took me out of the trailer and we rode down the lift. That was it, I was all done. It was not a bad experience, by any means, but I really wish I had known how long I’d be in the tube so I could have gotten comfortable and maybe napped. All in all, a pretty interesting experience for something completely stationary.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com