What my MRI scan was like

 So Thursday morning I was up in time to get the larks up. After a few nights of dreadful broken sleep, I went to work as usual. I left at 1pm to get home and let Bluebell out, clean my teeth etc before my friend picked me up. 

But before work, I had to hunt out my swimming costume. Thanks for the kind comments and bra suggestions on my last post  lovely bloggy folks. So I do indeed had a pull on sports bra type affair. But that's too small. I tried and got stuck midway. Not a great look. So I carried the stepladders up the stairs and climbed up to my top boxes in our new wardrobes. 

And when I say Top boxes they are right up at the top. And

at 4ft 11, I'm not! These photos are from when they were installed by the HG in the Summer. The wallpaper shows where the old wardrobes were! 

Anyway I struggled but managed and then got my Son to reach the very last one for me to check - of course what I was looking for was in the very last box...

I tried on. Swimming costumes are stretchy but not that stretchy ! And it is a good few years since I wore them but nope, definitely a bit snug as you can see in my photo below . 

Nicked this funny off the internet! 

Then I thought, oh I know, I've my vest top, that will be fine. Forgetting that I've worn it in bed due to the drenchers I've been having nightly ... I thought - it'll be fine - a bit of febreze and there we are. Oh 

Fished out of the laundry basket to remember I drooled sodding toothpaste down it cleaning my teeth - the drooling occurred because I overbalanced. Michael Mosley told me to stand on one leg whilst brushing my teeth because it's good for me ! I'm dead good on my right one but a bit wobbly on my left. 

Balls to it, I thought. I will just go au natrel! 

So into the mobile MRI wagon.

I'd climbed. up the rickety stairs and was welcomed in by two radiologists and one of them looked like Paddy Dingle off Emmerdale.

He asked me to sit on the chair in a tiny box cupboard labelled 'changing room'.  and asked me 

Name

Age

Weight

Height

Have you got a bra on?

Take it off

I thought, blimey, he's forward and I don't think much of this speed dating!!!

So the scanner was in a lorry trailer in the hospital car park. At one end I could see there was the person in front of me being scanned. All I could think of was the scene from The Wizard Of Oz where the house lands on the witch and her legs and feet are all that's left sticking out! In the middle was a giant wall of tech, screens, buttons, cables and knobs and then the tiny cupboard where I was sitting at the other end, opposite the scanner room. 

He also asked if I had any tattoos, metal implants and anything inside my body I was not born with. I signed a form and then waited. There was a pulsing humming and whooshing constant noise and it almost felt womblike. Pulsing and rhythmical. I could have fallen asleep. He asked if I'd had one before ? I said no, I was looking forward to the experience! 

Then it was my turn. 

I walked from the cupboard, past the tech desk, into the scanner room. He said get on the bed. Bed! Concrete slab it was with blocks on it. One for my head that was like a chopping block shape and then an inverted v shaped one for my legs to go over. And a sculpted like shell foam mould for my shoulder. 

He manhandled me into it and after 3 instructions to lower my left shoulder, he realised I could not lower my left shoulder, I was manoeuvred a bit more, strapped in and anchored down. But as my shoulder was the most painful it had been for days, I could not hold my arm straight down against my side so was allowed to bend it at the elbow so my hands were resting on my middle. 

Next he said stay still, don't move, be still as you can. The bed shifted me in a bit, he tucked my saddlebags in on my right side so I felt squished up against the wall of the thing, he gave me a panic button to press if I needed them to stop and slapped a pair of ear defenders on.

He then proceeded to ask me if I was ok. I gave a thumbs up. He said don't move! 

Then he said right I'm going back in with Paddy Dingle. It'll take 20 minutes to an hour. Ok Rachel? Well, I wasn't allowed to move so I did nothing. 

Then Paddy Dingle said 

Are you Ok Rachel? You can speak to us! 

So I squeaked a Yes, sorry ( because I am British! ) 

I think, I'd reverted to 2 years old where if I can't hear you, you won't be able to hear me! Plus he'd said not to move, so no thumbs up and he'd given me a button to press to communicate with them to stop ie. I'm not OK , so why would I speak. 

And then it started! Now I know so many people who have had an MRI before. Interestingly, not the HG. ( 10 years this year since the Kidney Cancer! ) and they all mostly report it is so noisy, banging, clanking, clunking. 

Now that is not at all how I would describe it. 

It was like being IN a Space Invaders game to me.Peeeeow Peeeeow Peeeow zzzzzzzzzzzzz nooo noooo noooo nooooo dededede dededede bbrrrrrrr bbrrrrrrrt each 'firing' electrons sound was a different pitch so I could imagine it penetrating the different layers of my body tissues. 

Then it stopped! 

I thought, wow that was fast! 

And a muffled voice said, right Rachel, we are ready to start, KEEP STILL AND DO NOT MOVE. 

And I didn't! But I was so conscious of not moving and was barely breathing but realised my hands on my middle must be moving up n down. After a good chunk of being eliminated from space. It stopped and the voice said Rachel, some of that was shaky. You need to keep still. I said I'm ever so sorry, I think it's because I am breathing! He said, try shallow breathing. Which is what I thought I'd been doing. 

So anyway I said I'd try, I took two deep breaths and said Ok. 

Well, the more you think about your breathing, the harder it is to do shallow breathing and not move your lungs at all and because there's nothing to look at or distract you the focus becomes uncomfortable. I started to realise properly how the people with claustrophobic tendencies could panic. 

The magnetic fields  were well underway and by now I could feel them hitting my bone ( I couldn't, but you know ) and it was getting warmer. He said you are doing well. But then with the concentration on my shallow breathing becoming so intensified I thought the next time he asks if I'm ok I'll say I'm not, I can't do any more. I felt like I was going to pass out and the buzzer had shifted in my grasp so I'd have had to have moved to squeeze it. Anyway they said my name and all of a sudden I was sliding back out into the light! He asked if I was Ok. I said I was now. He said you can sit up. But I couldn't. It was like I was paralysed! So he helped me up and said how was it? I then said. Ooo I enjoyed that! It was an adventure! He laughed. I said when you told me to do shallow breathing, I couldn't!!! He then said you are free to go! So I left the chamber, walked past Paddy Dingle at the computer and said, Could you see why my shoulder hurts so much? 

He said 

Ohhhh yes. But your results will be through in about two weeks and they will go straight back to the consultant who referred you. I then got sorted and went out into the pouring rain glad to feel it in my face! 

Here's what I think they should do to make it better. 

For me, had I known they did a start test shot as it were, it would have been preferable. Also there is no way of knowing how long you have been in there so saying 20 minutes to an hour is absolutely pointless unless they can talk you through it. The inside of the chamber is white with nothing to look at - I don't know if that can be changed. They never offered me music through earphones like it said on the NHS guide. And explaining what happens if you move meaning it has to go again might help also a guide to the different sounds you might hear. Knowledge is power! 

Then my friend. Picked me up and we went to the garden centre for a cup of tea and some cake. Lemon ginger cheesecake for me, chocolate cake for her. We had a good old debrief about all our medical bits and bobs and work stuff. A browse in the gorgeous gift shop and bought some sweeties from the lovely display of goodies on the way out. 

She dropped me off at home in time for tea! All in all I'd give it a solid 8/10 for a day out! 

Hope you had something good for your tea, and if you ever need an MRI scan, you know what to expect now!