MRI Scan

[watervole]

I had an MRI scan last week (won't know if it's produced any useful information for a week or two).  I suspect it's only looking for long-shot options on the cause of the vertigo.

Having a scan is staggeringly boring.  You wait for ages in the waiting room (but at least there's decent magazines), then you lie down with your head in a ring just like on your average hospital TV show.  You effectively have your head in a box, but they thoughtfully provide an angled mirror so you can see the guy at the controls. I suspect this makes people a lot less likely to panic.

They offer you a choice of music on big, padded, headphones.  There's a reason for this...

Being in a scanner is noisy - that's the bit the TV shows gloss over.

They give you the headphones for a reason.

Being in a scanner is not just noisy, it is very noisy.

When you have the headphones on, playing banal music of  limited choice, you can just about hear the music over the sound of a pile driver.

It really, truly, sounds just like someone is operating  a pile driver right next to you - and that's WITH the headphones and music.

I shudder to think what it sounds like without the headphones!  The medical staff all sensibly retire to another room with a closed door before they switch it on.

Being a fairly phlegmatic person, I lay back, closed my eyes for most of the 1-15 mins the scan took and day-dreamed about Doctor Who.  I suspect some people might find it a little scary, but personally, it was reassuringly dull.

Comments

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Somebody (autopope?) described the experience as somewhat akin to listening to a brass band being subjected to extraordinary rendition...

[novawulfen.livejournal.com]

I've been in one of those. It was for science, and I had to hum a tune and hold a note while the hammering happened.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Do you know what they were researching? I imagine it was to see which areas of the brain were activated by sound.

[novawulfen.livejournal.com]

It was to see which areas of the brain were firing when two people tried to sing the same thing together.

At least that's what they told us.

I get the impression that it wasn't, or the experiment was badly designed, because we couldn't hear each other when the hammering started, so we just had to hold the note we were on. Which to me means they were measuring the bits of the brain that hold notes, but there we go....

[watervole.livejournal.com]

They may have underestimated the noise.

Singing while being scanned would also make the head more likely to move. Another factor that could mess up hte data...

[lexin.livejournal.com]

That's about what I thought as well, when they did my head. Noisy and banal.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

I had an MRI scan a couple of months ago. The bit they were interested in was my wrist (I fractured my scaphoid bone, which is apparently notoriously difficult to diagnose from an x-ray) but all of me had to go in the MRI scanner - although my head poked out of the end so it wasn't too claustrophobic. It was pretty noisy, but not as bad as I was expecting.

A friend of mine had one a few years ago, and they said he could listen to the radio if he liked. "Can I have Radio 4, please?" he asked. "Sorry, we've only got Radio 1," they replied. He opted for the loud clunking noise instead.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

I had an MRI scan a few months back (I suffer from congestion, turns out I have very narrow sinuses) and I can't say I thought it was particularly loud, just tedious...!

[grikmeer.livejournal.com]

I think House gets some of the noise effect over. I've not had one so I can't really be sure, but it always seemed to be loud when they show someone inside one on it. Then again, House did put someone in one with a bullet in his head.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

they have to mute it a bit or you wouldn't be able to hear the actors. It has the volume, as well as the sound, of a pile driver.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask about metal. Presumably the big ring is a giant electromagnet, right?

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Yes. You have to remove watches and the like and there's a very careful check to ensure you have no metal fragments in your body.

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

I thought you meant the musical genre! That would make sense as you could play it LOUD.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This is the first time I have a chance to share someone´s experience from the scanner. Now I hope very fervently that the results will be good for you!*Hugs*

[selenay]

Hope the results are good {{hugs}}

My first MRI was on my brain and for some reason I wasn't allowed headphones. It's not fun. The person who had their scan ahead of me came out crying, which wasn't reassuring!

The one on my back was OK, got given headphones and happily listened to Abba. Then they did my hip last year which required tying me to the trolley. Amd headphones with no music that time. Um, yeah, that also wasn't fun.

TV shows never really show all the reasons why an MRI can be an unsettling experience. It all seems so clean, quiet and clinical. I can see why some patients panic so badly while they're in there.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I can see how someone claustrophobic could be terrified.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I wasn't offered headphones or music, and there was no mirror. I agree with the pile-driver assessment -- I was glad I had someone to pick me up afterwards, because my ears were still literally ringing several hours later. It made it hard to concentrate. I can see why loud noise is used as a torture device.

[cdave]

I was told that quite a few people fall asleep in the machine. I certainly drifted a bit.