MRI number one this morning

[cjsmith]

Los Gatos MRI is a very organized place. I never felt forgotten or lost. They told me what I needed to know just before I needed to know it. They even knew almost to the minute how long I'd be at the facility.

The MRI machine is a big smooth supermodern-looking thing. It belongs in a 1970s science fiction movie.

The medical technicians (is that the right title?) did a great job propping my leg in exactly the position they wanted. This would keep my foot not only at the desired angle, but allow me to relax completely enough that it would stay still. I was told they were taking 2-mm slices and I had to be very good at holding still. There were foam wedges, cushions, towel rolls, little pillows, and even a Velcro strap helping support my leg.

It's very hard to remain perfectly relaxed. It's even more difficult when the magnetic pounding begins and all the nerves respond. Anyone else who's had an MRI: have you experienced this? I can FEEL IT. It's very, very, very weird. Once I even got some surprisingly strong tingles from some of the nerves that we suspect are damaged.

mactavish, you asked about different sound after the contrast. I can't say, because every one they did sounded different. There was the WAAAA, WAAAAA, WAAAA, WAAAAA one, and the JIJIJIJI DADADADADA JIJIJIJI BOBOBOBOBO DADADADADA one, and the ONK ONK ONK ONK ONK one, and the MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM one (MMMMM was very nice, felt like a massage of every cell in my legs). Plus of course I was in major-senses-shutdown mode from having needle stuff done.

All in all they did maybe eight spurts ranging from thirty seconds to five minutes. I was in the machine about forty minutes. I was told I held still well. Good.

The doctor should have the results in three business days. By then I will have gone in for the other foot, which'll be Friday morning.

Comments

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Hope the MRI shows something useful. I had an MRI on my ankle. I don't remember the different noises but I remember thinking why is this machine so slow, shouldn't they get a faster processor - but they'd also given me headphones and a walkman to pass the time.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, I wonder whether processing speed is the limiting factor. Maybe it's how fast they can mess with the smaller magnets. I dunno. I got headphones too, and I suspect my ears would've been very unhappy if I hadn't. :-)

[eichin.livejournal.com]

One of the interesting spinoffs of "quantum computing" research is supposed to be more compact magnets and drivers that should reduce the size of MRI equipment specifically (that is, the usage is sufficiently congruent that the changes apply directly.) The phrase "desktop MRI" comes up, which also makes smaller units for more local work (hands and feet vs. full body) more affordable (now they're in the "mainframe" mode, big expensive machine that you use for everything to get the most mileage out of it.)

My mom had lower back MRI a few weeks ago - they gave her a DVD with data to bring to her doctor. He already had the data via some other channel, I think it was just an alternate path. The DVD actually included some windows app to view the data, from what I could tell poking around on it from a Mac... it seems likely that that included the data already cooked down from model to slice-image, rather than doing it on the fly, so it might have been possible to pry it out given more time...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The whole concept of applying quantum computing to MRIs carbonates my brain. I am glad the world has people like Ike Chuang. (O'course, the magnet in his lab is no dainty thing...)

Dang, I must be the only one who didn't get a data disk when I left the clinic. Well, I'll ask 'em Friday.

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

The virbrations from the machine will definitely evoke a response on sensitive nerves. The actual magnetic force generated by the machine is not felt of course but it makes you wonder.


Glad it went well!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wasn't conscious of much vibration, but there are also lots of other reasons I could have felt some oddities. I suspect magnetic induction on the nerves (but for all I know, I have nerves of just the right length to light up with the RF pulse). Fortunately, it wasn't painful, just odd, and mostly very subtle. I'm glad it was as easy as it was. Now I only dread finding out how expensive it was... :-)

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Remote neural stimulation as in your MRI is an interesting topic. Dare we hope for an Orgasmotron soon? It would be so handy... some preliminary reports: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/story?id=235788&page=1. Note they were trying to relieve chronic pain!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing that! With an MRI-style device (the gigantic magnet and the smaller gradient magnets) you wouldn't even need electrodes. Too bad superconducting magnets the size of a car are so darned expensive and heavy.

[jb98.livejournal.com]

You did an excellent job describing the sounds. They are so weird! I have had 2 MRI's of my brain and I don't remember feeling anything except panic the first time and tranquilizer induced bliss the 2nd. The 2nd one kinda felt like I was lying inside a steel drum while it was being played.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Inside a steel drum while it was being played -- yeah, I can only imagine! I had less of that effect since my head was well outside the bore. I bet it's a whole lot more claustrophobic to have your brain done.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I've had one brain MRI (I was an experimental subject!) and two neck MRIs. I'm so lucky that I'm not claustrophobic or sensitive to the noise. I was surprised at the loudness and variety of the sounds, but I found that the little foam earplugs protected me quite adequately. I would have relaxed more, but during the two neck MRIs I was nervous about swallowing, since I was supposed to only swallow during the breaks in the the sets of noises. The brain MRI was mellow for me, and I relaxed nicely.

For the neck MRIs I asked and was very pleased to get a CD-ROM with the data and a viewing program! That way I could tour my neck and tumor myself. And post pix (and icons) on LJ from the MRI. Such fun! You may be able to ask your MRI technician for a CD of your data; can't hurt to try if you're curious.

I'm so so so thankful for my neck MRIs -- I hope yours turn out to be revealing and valuable for you. I love MRI machines now!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I didn't ask this time but maybe I can get Friday's data.

It's handy to get the scan done on a place that doesn't naturally MOVE much, like a foot. I can imagine "hold your breath for 48 seconds now please" for something in the upper abdomen...

[rampling.livejournal.com]

You might also ask for a CD with both Friday's data and today's data -- they oughtta still have it. They might say yes, y'know!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

They might! I can hope!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I still had my earplugs in my purse when the fire alarm went off (false alarm, everyone had seen the kid run up and set it off) in Logan Airport, and I'm so very happy about that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeow, I just bet! Fire alarms *hurt*.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It lasted half an hour. JetBlue couldn't shut it off, the right people from the airport had to sign the right forms and push the right buttons.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's awful. I don't often wish to lose any acuity in my senses, but I admit that at times like that I envy people with moderate hearing loss.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

I had an MRI done on my lower back earlier this year, and I didn't feel anything from the scanning.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I wonder if it's the nerve hypersensitivity...

[sharya.livejournal.com]

Very interesting!

I hope the results show something helpful.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I soooooooooo hope they show something fixable. The only thing I can think of at the moment is nerve damage, so I guess I hope they show that.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

There was the WAAAA, WAAAAA, WAAAA, WAAAAA one, and the JIJIJIJI DADADADADA JIJIJIJI BOBOBOBOBO DADADADADA one, and the ONK ONK ONK ONK ONK one, and the MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM one

You should look for a job doing sound effects. ;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Life is better with sound effects! Too bad I couldn't bring something to write with, so I could jot down better descriptions of the noises. I can only imagine what would happen to a PDA or a laptop in there (since those things can slurp up a fully loaded pallet jack).

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

Agreed. that just made me laugh.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yay! And that really is pretty much what it sounded like to me. :)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i love your descriptions of the sounds and feel of the MRI. based on that alone, i can say i've never had one of these. CAT scans, yes, contrast, yes. those mostly whir.

i hope that good things come from these!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I talked to some coworkers and some of them never felt anything from an MRI. Others did. But yeah, if it wasn't as noisy as living inside a drum set, it wasn't an MRI! :-)

Thanks -- I hope so too...

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

no, mine were definitely not that noisy! but did you get the mechanical voice telling you when you could and could not breathe? or to take deep breath and hold it for twenty gazillion years? those things are operated by sadists, i tell you!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nah, they weren't imaging my torso so I was okay on the breathing (thank goodness). They did pipe the tech's voice in through my headset: "Setting you up for the next one." CHUNKACHUNKACHUNKA... "Okay, five minutes." DIDIDIDIDIDIDIDI... "Now two more before we inject the contrast." Etc.

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Oh the breathing LOL. During my MRI this month (all abdominal) I held my breath repeatedly. The tech would say "take in a breath and hold it...." and then "Okay, breathe." On one long episode the tech forgot to tell me I could breathe again. I can't imagine how long I held that one in but it was way longer than 48 seconds.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's awful! I hope you planted some cleat marks on that tech's butt after that little lapse. :-)

OK, so now I KNOW I'm not totally insane.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

THANK you for publishing this.

I was driving myself to distraction a few months ago when I got an MRI done on my sinuses, because I could swear I felt a tingling or tickling sensation as my head passed through the machine ... and the operator and doctors told me I could not possibly have felt anything.

But I felt it, goddammit. I KNOW I felt it.

And they insisted equally as forcefully that I couldn't have felt an MRI.

Argh.

But now I feel better knowing that someone else felt their MRI, too.

Thank you, and [gentle] hugs!

Re: OK, so now I KNOW I'm not totally insane.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The operator and doctors are not electromagnetic engineers. They don't know why you would feel something. Therefore they assert that you don't. (Doctors in particular can be real idjits this way. They're used to being the authority, and they forget there are things they don't know.) Besides, I suspect some people -- maybe most people -- aren't sensitive enough and thus really don't feel anything. You had sensitized sinuses. I have sensitized nerves.

I can think of at least three ways an MRI could create sensations. 1) Induction of electrical current in the nerves due to freakin' big (and CHANGING) magnetic field. I can think of no other way those tingles I felt could have been produced. 2) There's iron in the blood, thus perhaps its motion is affected by changes in the magnetic field. 3) (this is a long shot, I don't know the frequency) Nerve segments of the right length to light up from the RF pulse they give (the one that knocks the precessing molecules off their spin so they can watch 'em fall back over).

But hey. If a DOCTOR says I can't feel those things, well then. :-P

Re: OK, so now I KNOW I'm not totally insane.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

I *hate* it when people who have not experienced a given thing pronounce upon what it's like.

Re: OK, so now I KNOW I'm not totally insane.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Favorite story along these lines. Friend was getting a needle biopsy of something in her breast. The doc assured her it wouldn't hurt much, yet it did, and he had the temerity to argue with her about it. She asked tartly, "When's the last time you had it done?" He said his professor in medical school told him it didn't hurt. She replied acidly "And when's the last time HE had it done?" Apparently the guy shut up at that point.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

So I should have been more specific, but I didn't want to put the idea in your head, first.

For my first MRI, I was concentrating on the different sounds just to amuse myself during the long scan. After awhile, I realized I was hearing what sounded like hundreds of different cathedral bells, big ones, but distant, all a jingle, no melody, as part of the overall mechanical noise of the machine. I didn't know whether it was the earplugs filtering out all but that frequency, or what. During this scan, the radiologist said things like, "This one will be four minutes," or "this one will last three minutes, then be quiet for a moment, then there will be two minutes."

The next time, I listened for it intently, again just to entertain myself. But I heard nothing. This radiologist didn't give times, but asked, "You okay?" or announce, "The tray will move a little," or "We're about half done." At one point, he said, "Okay, we're injecting the contrast medium now," then a moment later, jingle jangle, there went the church bells, and they lasted through the rest of the scan.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I heard nothing like that. O'course, I had a headset with music instead of having earplugs, so perhaps I wouldn't have. The headset pinched pretty badly, so maybe I'll go for earplugs tomorrow...

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

No earplugs! Carry a recorded book instead. It makes it *very, very* easy to while time away. (Music bores me after awhile because it doesn't occupy enough of my attention.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah - if I'd had one on CD that could've worked! Cool idea!

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

The library has them on CD as well as tape. At least mine does. Do you suppose you'll be having more MRI's?

If you will, and your library is lacking, let me know. I burn recorded stories onto cd all the time and I'll happily share.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I think I won't be, but thanks! 8-) (My library's mostly tape.)