MRI - so much less scary than I thought! (some details)

abatract

Just a quick update--had my MRI last night, and it was so much easier than I thought. Xanax helped, but I thought I'd mention a few things I didn't know. My tech read also amazing, the most anxiety-calming person ever, I want to bring her with me to everything.

The most important thing I wished I'd known: they gave me a little squeezey bulb to squeeze in case I needed it to stop, and then everything stops and they get you out immediately.

I was lying down face first, with my torso and face elevated slightly from the table (face in a massage table-like cut-out). This actually really helped.

They wheeled me in feet first, which is comforting to know, even though my head was down and I couldn't see it.

It might not help some people, but the noises (even through earplugs) actually were really helpful to me. Gave me something to concentrate on, and sounds completely different with each scan. Honestly, I almost laughed when I first heard it--it sounds like a bad eighties sci-fi movie. Kinda awesome, actually.

It's not just waiting in silence the whole time, they had to talk to me pretty frequently. It would go kinda like this: "okay, you're doing really well, the next test will be for four minutes". This was every 2-4 minutes, about.

I texted my brother a step by step of the test that I can copy and paste if anyone's interested, but I just thought I'd share, since I had a legitimate fear/phobia of MRI machines for years, and it ended up being so much better than I thought.

2Bawesomer

So glad your experience was a positive one. I hope the results were also less than feared!

I was not worried about the MRI but was very stressed out and a little emotional the afternoon I went in for mine. They asked me if I wanted headphones to play music and drown out the sounds and I declined because I also kind of find the sounds reassuring and relaxing (if you can believe that). Unfortunately the headphones being out caused the music to play over the loudspeakers which I wasn't happy about but wasn't going to make a big deal of. Luckily for me, the contrast IV started leaking profusely down my arm so I had a legitimate reason to stop the test. They immediately stopped it, asked me what was wrong and listened as I told them I had two issues: the music and the IV. After fixing the IV leak, they left the room and warned me they would have to start over and it would be a full 32 minutes from the beginning again because we had to stop.

As soon as the machine started back up....so did the music. Unfortunately, they had hyper-focused on fixing the IV leak and forgot to turn off the music (which they don't hear in their booth). When the music started back up the radio station had the song 'American Pie' playing...it had just started. If you are not familiar with this song, the lyrics include phrases like 'the day the music died' , ' do you have faith in God above', 'can music save your mortal soul' and so on and it goes on for NINE MINUTES. By the time the test was complete I was hovering over a pool of snot and tears. About halfway through I had to fight my body shaking from laughing at the irony of being stuck in that tube, recently diagnosed with cancer, and listening to a song that ends with the line 'This'll be the day that I die' ...after asking for no music TWICE!

My lesson for the day...it's okay to squeeze the thing they give you for any reason significant to you, even if you aren't scared! I wish I had...I don't care if they DID have to start over :-P

On a positive note: My MRI found no new areas of concern which the mammogram had not already identified so I was scheduled for a lumpectomy with SNB. Now I am just waiting for the pathology report from that. If it's in the nodes I'll be doing chemo. If it is not, I'm told I may only have to do radiation and hormone therapy.