MRI - Procedure description

rdeesides

Hi all,

I just had an MRI today, and I was a little nervous about it, so I wanted to recap here step by step how it went down in case anyone else is nervous about theirs too. I'm the type of person that needs to visualize all the details in my head in order to mentally prepare. Obviously different imaging centers may have slightly different procedures, but this is a recap of my experience.

I arrived at the clinic and signed in and was told to sit down until my name was called. Once my name was called the check-in person checked my ID and insurance card and then checked me in and gave me a hospital id bracelet. (Wasn't expecting that!) My radiology center is attached to the hospital. He gave me a questionnaire that asked a lot of questions about any medical conditions I may have had in the past and it had a whole list of questions about anything that may be in my body like an IUD, or tattoos, or false teeth etc. I guess they want to go over every little detail to make sure nothing contains metal. I do happen to have an IUD and a bridge, but was later told that is was fine.

I turned that paperwork in and had to wait again until the nurse called me.

When the nurse called me in she took me to a room that was a dressing room type area. It had several dressing rooms and also some lockers with keys. She gave me a big plastic bag, a gown, a robe, and some socks. She showed me to one of the dressing rooms and she told me to take all my clothes off except my panties and put them in the plastic bag. Then I was to put the gown on, open to the front, and the robe over that, also open to the front. I also put on the socks. The nurse was waiting in another room while I did this.

When I came out she advised that I should use the restroom if I needed to since you have to be very still during the procedure. After that she took me to an office type room with a loungey type chair that I sat in and she covered me up with a warm blanket. She had me sign some discharge papers that basically said to drink lots of water for the next 24 hours. Then she asked me which arm she should use for the IV. I have no idea! She thumped around and decided the left one was good. I was very nervous about the IV, but it actually didn't hurt at all. The nurse told me that all breast MRIs have contrast, so I am assuming the IV thing is standard procedure. Note that she inserted the IV, but I wasn't really connected to anything yet. I wasn't looking when she did it, so I was afraid to move, thinking I was connected to something, but I wasn't... it was just the connection in my arm. After that was done she asked me to wait some more in the dressing room area. I put the discharge papers in my locker. There were a bunch of magazines so I waited and read a trashy magazine. :-)

After a few minutes the nurse came back and said the MRI room was ready. We walked back there together and she introduced me to the technician who would be running the MRI. The room was set up like a sound booth, with the technician sitting in the sound booth and a big window looking into a separate room with the MRI machine was. I was asked to place my locker key in a little bowl on the technician's desk. The technician told me she would be taking about 2000 pictures! I told her I was a little nervous about moving too much and messing up the MRI and she told me to just lay still and breathe normally. She told me she would be talking to me throughout the procedure. She also asked if I wanted music and what kind.

The nurse then took me into the room with the MRI. She gave me ear plugs. I had to open my robe and my gown and climb up two steps and lay down onto a flat surface that had an opening to put your head, like a massage table, and an opening to put your breasts. Then the nurse put two blankets on top of me to keep me warm and comfortable and positioned the head phones on my head. It took me a few seconds to get my head in a position that felt comfortable. She gave me the choice to keep my arms by my side or stretched out in front of me. I chose straight out in front. She gave me a little squeeze ball to hold and told me that if I needed to stop the test to squeeze the ball and they would come get me out.

At this point I closed my eyes because I didn't want to see anything (I always close my eyes for scary medical things... Im such a wuss). I don't think I would have seen anything anyway because I was laying face down, but I didn't want to take any chances. I felt the nurse push me back into the machine. A few seconds later the technician told me she was about to start and that the first image would take about two minutes. The machine was very loud, but honestly it didn't bother me. What was weird was that I felt it vibrating a little. For the second set of pictures, the technician told me it would take about 8 minutes and that I might feel warm, but not to worry it is normal and would go away. It did get a little warm but not anything that significant. Then, and this part surprised me, the technician said "now we are going to insert the contrast". I thought they had already started that! She told me to expect some coolness. As soon as they started running the contrast I began to feel nauseous and for about 10 seconds I was worried. I am not sure if this was because of the contrast or because I was nervous, because she hadn't said to expect that I could feel nauseous. Anyway, it passed quickly and then I did also feel the coolness, but nothing hurt or felt bad, it just felt cool in my veins.

Like I said, the machine was loud, but it was kind of rhythmic so I just tried to settle into it. The music was very bad and I could barely hear it so I don't know that I would even ask for it again. It would be cool if they could hook the music up to your own playlist on your phone.

I think I went thru about 5 rounds of pictures and it lasted about 30 minutes. The technician spoke to me before each set of pictures and told me how long they would be. I could hear the machine running very loudly during that time. The only part that was uncomfortable was that my hand started falling asleep midway thru and I was afraid to move it. So I had to go at least 10 minutes or so with a half asleep hand that was tingly. When the technician was done, she came in and took the blankets off and took out the IV and wrapped a bandage on my arm where the IV was. I got up very slowly because someone had mentioned on this board that you could feel dizzy when you get up. Indeed, I was ever so slightly off kilter so I just went slowly. I picked up my locker key and the technician walked me back to the dressing room area where I changed, and then I left. I had checked in at 9:30 and was done at about 11:45.

I hope this helps someone!

Rebekah