Hello all,

I've been booked in for an MRI to scan the new lump that has been found in my neck.

I have never had an MRI even before surgery last time, I've only had ultrasound, FNA and CT.

Therefore, I was wondering if anyone would be able to shed any light on why this could be that I'd have one now after all this time.

Also I'd like to know what happens in them as I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to things that are done when I'm conscious!

Hello Sarah

You will find the advice given in these earlier posts about coping with an MRI scan helpful. Good luck.

Best wishes
Vinod

Keep you eyes closed once you slide in and don't open them until they come back for you. Don't even do it to check - just keep them shut tight. Checking is what panicked me.

Take a cd of music you like so you have a time frame and expect to hear the loudest noise right next to your head. They forget to put their music on for me. I should have pressed the buzzer and told them as it may have helped me.

It is different from a ct scan which is more open and less enclosed. yYu are not really enclosed so much it's just that the open ended tube your body goes into is not much larger than your body and you are strapped down a bit with wires etc. You can do this it's just got to be got through.

An MRI head scan costs about £700 or £800 or so in uk.

Oh and I think it took about 40 minutes. The more still you lie the faster it is. I did lie very still BTW. They run it until they get all the scans they need. So don't fidget just go with it.
Also unlike the CT you do not have an injection or take a drink beforehand. It is not painful if that helps just for me a bit too damn noisy. Mine was 3 years ago so maybe they have improved.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice.

My letter says that I might have to have an injection, it was more the claustrophobia that bothered me though.

It's at 2pm tomorrow so at least this time tomorrow it'll be over with!

Best Wishes

Sarah

So how did your scan go. Hope it was all much better than you expected.

Hi Pauline,

thanks so much for asking. It was really the most unpleasant scan I've had so far but also bearable.

I suffer from panic attacks and was almost close to squeezing that buzzer a few times to get the hell out of there!

I reasoned with myself that whatever this new lump is I need to know quickly and react so this was the only way forward.

I also had to have an injection which wasn't awful but I'd rather not have had!

Overall I think it felt like being in an overgrown Smartie tube!

Up til now I have to wait til 3rd August for my results, bit fed up about that!

Still, I feel thoroughly ashamed for complaining having read what most of you guys/gals have been through.

You really are all a great inspiration to me and I'm sure to everyone else in the same situation.

You know I did not want to use the word claustrophobia, but yes I agree that's how it made me feel, although time has dimmed the memory.

Do you think the injection was to calm you down or show up areas. I know I had hoped for a tranquiliser, but no such luck. The day I had mine done there was a boy about 11 there who had had something like 9 MRI scans for a brain ailment.

He was far more stable than me both before and after! He made me feel I should be braver he was so matter of fact about it.

I think as you said it is a bearable experience, but as with aspects of treatment only something we know is bearable once we we have it done. Bearable - that's also how I would describe having the mask mould made. Bearable, but claustrophobic in a different way. Radiotherapy bearable, but horrible, somehow you get through it. I do believe having an idea what to expect can be useful mental preparation.

I expect others can add to the list.

The MRI is truly a wonderful machine - though I read that the latest ones take just a few minutes to do what has to be done.

But the truth is that you are lying on your back in there, in cream plastic light, with wheeping and screeping noises going on around you, and not allowed to move, and possibly injected with contrast fluid, and in my case terrified that it would reveal some problem I didn't know about.

Fortunately all my MRI scans were done by people that called me in straight away to tell them there was nothing to worry them.

Which half convinced me. It is wonderfully horrible.

And... they gave me headphones to dim the noise and then played the kind of music that I would not play on my own radio station...

Welcome to the MRI crowd - and of course we can say that if they hadn't had an MRI machine, who knows what they could have missed inside us.

Mind you, all the pictures look rather stange to me, which is why I am a broadcaster and not a doctor.

Hi all,

The lady who did my scan told me that it was a dye to show up all the blood vessels and veins etc.

It's strange because while I was being panicked and claustrophobic I was also thinking what wonderful technology we have and how amazing that this machine is telling people what is wrong with me!

Pauline, I definitely agree that it is easier to prepare for something when you know what you are in for!

I suppose the scariest thing is the unknown.

I'm just driving myself mad waiting for the results now, 3rd August is a long way away. Although I suspect that my consultant will bring my apppointment forward now I had my scan so soon.

I think that everything we go through is horrible but because we have got through it we also say it is bearable!

I'm certainly finding this website a massive help, in terms of support and also learning what to expect from different procedures.

All the best

Sarah

Hallo Sarah,
regarding the reply from PaulineT about the cost or a MRI examination (600 to 800 GBP) here an address which might help to save some money in an already hard situation.
Just 7 - 14 days waiting time for the date and at NHS tariff!!!!!!
http://www.mri-net.co.uk
I hope this information helps in the scandalous MRI waiting procedure.
Kind regards
Edzard