Posted: 1/20/2009 12:51:06 PM EDT
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Can I eat before I do it?
Going 240 miles to do it. Can get there early and take my daughter to lunch. Do the MRI and then head for home. TIA M The hive, cheaper than calling long distance 
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Ask the doc for one valium pill and take it 30 minutes before you go in.
You want to be groggy so you can be still and relaxed. MRI's are loud and uncomfortable. Little or no padding for your ass. You will have the urge to fidget, itch or move. Get the valium and chase it with 6oz. of Nyquil
Other than that they are ez and painless. |
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Metal is the only worry in a MRI.
Be honest when answering the questions before hand. If you have ever had any metal in your eye let them know.If you have they will x-ray your eyes before hand to be sure nothing is in there. The magnet of an MRI never turns off. Well it can but the safe way to do it takes about a week. If by some act of god something went wrong and someone does have to push the OH SHIT button you are in for one hell of a ride! The magnet is cooled by liquid helium. This makes it a super conductor. Once the magnet is at temp they induce a electrical charge the makes it a magnet. This charge will stay present almost forever as long as the magnet is kept at temp. In the event of "OH SHIT" the liquid helium is purged. The magnet then starts the rather rapid heating process from ~-450*F to room temp. A few things can happen. The magnet can crack, and much worse the boiling helium can overwelm the vent that leads outside. In such a case the liquid helium may find its way into the MRI suite (Where you are). Bad JuJu! There are reports (old ones) of the liquid helium freezing the air in the MRI suite and causing it to RAIN LIQUID AIR! Giving that everything goes right in a superquench it can take up to 2 weeks and ~$100,000 to get the MRI rechilled and back working. Superquench usually only happens when people code while inside the MRI and some dumbshit runs in with a o2 bottle or crash cart. People have been seriously hurt by flying o2 bottles. I have a pic from the hospital my pops works at where someone thought the floors in the MRI suite needed a polish. Yep, 200 pound floor buffer stock to the magnet like Ted K to a bottle of scotch! There was also a highly disputed case of a police officer bringing his weapon into the suite. It flew across the room and the magnet was strong enough to disable the safeties and fire the weapon.... So they say! Have FUN! |
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Quoted:
Can I eat before I do it? Going 240 miles to do it. Can get there early and take my daughter to lunch. Do the MRI and then head for home. TIA M The hive, cheaper than calling long distance Used to work on them. They will ask about any metal you might have in your body, also if you have ever been a metal worker. Even a little sliver of metal can be torqued by the field. Bad juju if its in your eyes. Be prepared for an xray to check if you answer yes. They might let your daughter sit in the room with you or watch the images as they come up. A lot of times a patient will have somebody hold their hand during a scan. No ionizing radiation so your good. Eating before hand is not a problem unless it gives you indigestion and makes you move around a lot. So don't move around. Since it sounds like your driving yourself ignore the bit about the valium with the nyquil chaser. The gradients will be loud and they will provide you with ear plugs or headphones. Depending on what your getting scanned for they may give you an injection of magnevist. Do a google for it. Generally not a issue for most people. Holding still is really important. Make sure your comfortable BEFORE they put you in the magnet. Some to the double echo T2 sequences can run as long as 12 to 18 minutes. Be prepared to be in the magnet for upwards of an hour or a little more. The time will depend a lot on what's being scanned. If its a lumbar figure 45 minutes minimum. There is an intercom in the magnet. They can heard you mumbling to yourself. They will tell you to hold still if your moving around a lot. You can ruin a scan with movement. A good tech will do everything they can to make you comfortable. They really are interested in only having to do things once. The more comfortable you are the stiller you will be. You really don't want to be 12 minutes into a 15 minute scan and have them start over. I've been guinea pig for many new sites and new techs. I have at least 100 or so MRI on my head alone. Just get comfortable and relax. They are really rather boring. Feel free to IM with other questions. |
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I just had an MRI a few weeks ago.
They gave me ear plugs and I needed them because it was loud. I could feel the magnetic field when the machine was running. I was uncomfortable being in the machine. My body was fine, my mind wasn't. I prayed none of my children would ever have to go through this. They were looking at my spine and put a pillow under my knees. They gave me around 5 sets (1,3,4,5,5,7 minutes) of scans that lasted around 30 minutes. |