wow! The MRI from HELL!!!!

I am so sorry you had such a bad time. I was so glad that I chose to take sedatives. I had no clue what I was getting into. But I was not feeling very brave and when they suggested sedatives, I did not say no. I thought I will save my bravado for the upcoming fight.

I remember the last 10 mins vaguely and that was loud. Please, take sedatives before MRIs. I will.

Gymdiana - this may be your only MRI, I had 4 for various reasons, original during diagnosis, one for liver, another for a shadow that showed on US duringbiopsy, and the final for mri guided biopsy.

Yup, I'm still having PT thanks to that first 90 minute MRI guided biopsy where I held my arm over my head and was told not to move. When I was finally released my arm was shaking and my neck in a spasm which has yet to release. That was almost two years ago.

Gyw, thank you. Honestly I found the hardest thing was waiting and wondering...THAT I found agonizing. I sincerely couldn’t wait to get the chemo, surgery and rads...I wanted it gone, and was grateful that I had all the medical tests etc there to make it happen. Was it pleasant? No, not at all. But I decided to emotionally take the tests/treatments as positively as I could In order to stay sane. We had a discussion on another thread here recently about being stoic, and I related what my mother said to me at the beginning: “you can do this two ways, the easy way or the hard way”. Made sense to me. I’m hoping the rest of your journey comes easier!

Keep us posted on your progress

I thought the whooshing sound was like a bicycle pump, and the imaging noises reminded me of something out of the original Star Trek tv show, or a bad sci fi movie

Hi. I agree that was definately the worst experience through the whole process. And I took Ativan the first time and Oxy the 2nd time. I had headphones with music but that didn’t drown out the noise. Also had biopsies on both breasts via MRI. Torture. I work in healthcare and get mad about the diagnostic process that can be so torturous at times. Have made it a personal mission to try to change some of the uncomfortable experiences with some limited success.

as the dye exerts it's flushing effect it can trigger nausea in some people. Combine that with the room being hot and it's a recipe for disaster. The qucker the dye is pushed can also cause the severity of SEs to worsen. I swear to this day that I had a small heart attack that resulted in a left bundle branch block during a CT scan last year where the dye was pushed super fast in greater quantities than I've ever had. Unbearable heat, nausea, shortness of breath... I've had 100s of scans at this point in my life with & without dye and while it can be uncomfortable at times, I have never once had to even think about calling a halt to the scan. On that CT I literally thought i was going to pass out, die or both. I was raising my handto signal something was horribly wrong when they stopped the infusion and said we were done. The symptoms lessened but I was unsteadybon my feet, dizzy when I sat up, chest felt funny, a little wobbly walking down the hall to exit the building. A month later I have an EKG for pre-op purposes and there it is-the LBB. Of course everyone tells me contrast dye can't/doesn't do that. I beg to differ.

Wow my SIL had this same reaction and she was mad at me for saying it was easy. I wasn't lying to her I wasn't that uncomfortable.

Well, I can tell you this after what my SIL experienced, similar to yours, I will never tell anyone the breast and lower body MRI is a piece of cake. I consider myself very lucky with my experiences.

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I guess I was lucky, too. The room was a comfortable temperature and they played my favorite music on headphones. Many things make me nauseated but I didn't have any nausea from the MRI contrast.

Libber, thanks for your conscious effort toward improving things!!! Sorry so many of you have pain.