Reaction to having an MRI

An MRI is a rather unpleasant test. Especially if you are easily overstimulated and overwhelmed by loud noises, like me.

The procedure is simple enough. You lay on a bed that slides into the imaging part of the machine, which is a tight little white tube. I can easily see how people who are claustrophobic cannot handle this test at all. I could barely tolerate the closeness of the tube, and the only time I have issues with claustrophobia is when I am in trapped in a broken elevator. (Yes, I've been trapped in a number of broken elevators over the years, and I absolutely flip out when that happens. If you ever want me to crack and give you information during an interrogation, just put me in a stuck elevator for about 2 minutes. I'll be hyperventilating and in tears with panic, but I'll be so happy when you finally let me out that I will be fully cooperative once I calm down. Seriously.) 

You have to lay absolutely still for about 30 straight minutes while they image the part of the body that needs imaging. Guess who had the luck of having the most difficult area to image (according to the MRI techs)? Me. Yes, the most difficult area of the body to image is apparently the hand/wrist area because it's so difficult to keep still for that long. And trust me, when I say motionless, I mean motionless! It actually took about 45 minutes to get the images they needed of my thumb and wrist because your body will actually start to involuntarily twitch because the area that needs imaging is locked into a special cast-type thing that cuts off your circulation while you're being bombarded with magnetic rays. Fun, fun. But let me get to the best part...

Yes, the best part. The worst part of the whole thing for me was the noise level. The MRI techs know how noisy the machine is:  they even give you special ear plugs and headphones to wear while you're in the machine. They help, but not a lot. The noises made by the machine are literally a combination of boat foghorns, car horns, and trains (and are about the decibel level as though these things are going off at full volume 3 inches from your head) constantly for the entire length of the imaging procedure. If you don't like loud noises because you literally find them physically overwhelming (like me), this test is a horrible thing to have performed. I was literally shaking from physical exhaustion and in tears from sensory overload after the test was over, but I did really well (according to the MRI techs). 

In short, I don't want to EVER have one of those again if I don't absolutely have to. CT (a.k.a. CAT) scans are much better. Even if they don't involve fuzzy little felines. (Yeah, I've actually had a CT scan, and it wasn't so bad. But then again, I didn't turn out to be allergic to the contrast dye.)

But now I have a new procedure to add to my list of hated medical procedures to have performed list:

1. Colonoscopy
2. MRI
3. Dental surgery to remove severely impacted wisdom teeth

*Note:  The dental surgery only makes the list because it was so painful. Until I got narcs. It got all better after I got the narcs in me. That's why it fell to #3 on the list--the redemption of the opium poppy. Otherwise, it would've been #1.  

I won't know the results of the MRI until this Friday at the earliest, so I'll post again when I get the results.