If you’ve never had an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and your doctor schedules you for one, you might wonder what you’ll be experiencing.
First, don’t worry, at least not about the MRI. It’s not a dangerous or long procedure, it uses no radiation, and other than being boring and a real inconvenience, it’s pretty much a “piece of cake.” If you’re scheduled for a brain MRI like I was, then by all means, go to it without delay. Doctors are not in the habit of scheduling MRIs on a whim, especially brain MRIs, so if your doctor schedules you for one, chances are, you really need to have it done.
I’ve been experiencing a “shaking sensation” from the waist down, so I went to an orthopedist who did am EMG and found absolutely no nerve damage at all. With nerve damage ruled out, I was sent to a neurologist who told me only one disorder of the brain could cause allodynia in the left side of the body and sensation on the right side as well – multiple sclerosis. So, I was scheduled for an MRI to rule out MS – or find out if that was the cause of all my problems so I could begin treatment (the shaking sensation is the only sensation I’m experiencing).
Not all MRIs are done in a hospital. I didn’t have mine done in the hospital. I had mine done at a smaller imaging center that’s close to my home.
Unlike some other medical procedures, you don’t need to fast prior to an MRI. In fact, I stopped for a croissant and an iced cappuccino on the way to the imaging center. One thing you do need to be mindful of, however, is your attire. “Casual” is the word to keep in mind when having an MRI – as in sweats. I wore sweats for my MRI, and I got to keep them on and didn’t have to change into a hospital gown, something I really hate. The important thing is that you have absolutely no metal in your clothes – no zippers, nothing. Nothing metallic. I locked my purse, etc. in the car, but I had to take my driver’s license inside for ID purposes, and that had to be locked in a different room during my procedure as even the tiny magnetic strip on the back of an ID card, driver’s license, or credit card will interfere with the MRI results.
If you have glasses or any removable dental work, you must remove those from your body before entering the MRI room. Though the MRI machine is not always scanning, it is always “on” and the strong magnet will attract anything to it, even an oxygen canister or a metal chair, so anything metal that’s removable can become quite dangerous in that room. Certain people who have a pacemaker, a cochlear ear implant, and several other kinds of implants can’t have an MRI because the magnet might cause the implant to shift its position. In general, however, people with implants in bone, like a hip implant or even dental implants can have an MRI as long as their implant isn’t extremely recent. And don’t let anyone tell you that an MRI will ruin your fillings, crowns, or bridgework. I’ve had a lot of cosmetic dentistry done and none of it was ruined by the MRI. Nothing shifted. The metal used in fillings and under crowns doesn’t even react with the magnet in the MRI.
The MRI is so sensitive, you also need to avoid excessive hair spray, hair gel, and anything else you might put in your hair, and if you’re a woman, don’t wear makeup to your MRI.
There are two kinds of MRIs – the traditional “closed” MRI, which is like a very narrow tunnel, and the newer “open” MRI, which isn’t totally open, but is a lot more open than the tunnel. The tunnel has two big advantages over the open MRI – it’s a lot faster, and it gives the radiologist much higher quality pictures to aid in your diagnosis. However, some people are so very claustrophobic, they simply can’t tolerate a closed MRI. Even though the tunnel is closed on the sides, it is open on each end, and they are making them a little shorter now, so you feel less like you’ve been buried alive, but they are still a very tight fit. Claustrophobia is just about my only phobia, so I opted for the open MRI. My brain scan, in an open MRI took about twenty to twenty-four minutes and would only have taken about ten in the traditional closed tunnel.
Once you enter the MRI scanning room with the technician, you’ll be asked to lie down on a table, which really is pretty comfortable – considering where you are. If you’re having a brain MRI, you’ll have to wear a mask that reminds me of Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs,” but is far less restrictive. Don’t protest about this because you have to do it. Once it’s in place, it won’t bother you at all. This “mask” is made up of magnetic coils that help to give the radiologist a much clearer picture of your brain.
You’re given earplugs to wear, which might seem strange to the uninitiated, but I can tell you, it can sound like a road crew working once the MRI actually begins scanning. The closed machines are the noisiest, the open ones really aren’t too bad, but it’s always a good idea to protect your ears.
Once the coils and earplugs are in place, the technician hands you a squeegee bulb. If you need to stop the scan for any reason, and you should try never to do so unless it’s a true emergency, all you have to do is squeeze this and the technician will be alerted and will stop the scan and come into the room, and pull you out of the scanner. Also, please know that the technician can hear and see you at all times, even though he or she will be in a different room.
Now, it’s time for the technician to slide the table up and into the MRI. Whatever is being scanned has to be in the very center of the magnet, so if you’re having a brain MRI, you can count on being slid in “all the way.” In an open MRI, however, the magnet will only cover your face, shoulders, and chest. Be prepared for it to not be quite as “open” as the name might suggest. There are really only a few inches that are “open.” The rest is enclosed.
Some technicians are very friendly and explain everything to you. Others have far less patience and once you lie down and the earplugs and coils are in place – whoosh – they simply send you into the machine. I’ve been lucky. I’ve had friendly technicians.
I’ve heard that music is sometimes piped into the MRI, and I was even told I could bring my own favorite CD to listen to to help pass the time. I didn’t bother to take a CD, and I don’t know what good it would have done anyway since the machine is too noisy to prevent good listening. If you do take a CD, just make sure your give it to the technician before you enter the MRI room, and don’t be surprised if, once the MRI gets going, you can’t hear it.
An MRI is made up of a sequence of different scans, some of them lasting four minutes, some five, some six, etc. First, however, the technician takes a one-minute (or something similar) scan, just to make sure you’re positioned correctly. After this preliminary scan is finished, he or she will probably tell you how long the next scan will be, let’s say four minutes. You’ll hear the machine humming, then once the scan actually begins, you’ll hear all the sounds of a road crew working. This is just the MRI taking pictures. Okay, it’s way more complicated than that and involves a magnet moving protons, etc., but I can’t really explain it, and you don’t really need to know the scientific basis. Just know that once the scan begins, you should not move your head even a fraction of an inch or you’ll ruin that sequence. Do not talk while the machine is scanning. I don’t even take a deep breath or swallow during a sequence. I save things like that for between sequences. You really shouldn’t move your head between sequences, either. The more still you can be, the better. An MRI sequence isn’t something you want to have repeated. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s boring, and moving around certainly won’t endear you to the technician operating the machine.
You won’t come out of the tunnel between sequences, and one sequence will begin only seconds after the previous one ends. I like this. It gets the whole test over a lot faster.
I’ve had an MRI without contrast and one with contrast. If you need contrast there’s only one thing that needs to be considered and that’s your kidney function. If you’re going to have an MRI with contrast, make sure a blood test is done beforehand to make absolutely sure you have normal kidney function, even if you’re sure you do. And if you don’t have normal kidney function, you absolutely shouldn’t be given the gadolinium contrast. Gadolinium contains no iodine, like the contrast given with CT scans. It won’t make you feel warm, it won’t upset you if you have an iodine allergy, etc. However, it is excreted by the kidneys over the twenty-four to forty-eight hours after your scan, and if you have impaired kidney function, the gadolinium might remain in the kidneys for too long a period of time, harming them. Even if you do have normal kidney function, you should drink a lot of water after your scan to help the kidney excrete the gadolinium.
If you’re having an MRI with contrast, you’ll first have some scans without the contrast, then the technician will come into the room, slide the table out, and give you an injection. There is almost no chance of you having a reaction to gadolinium. Minor reactions have occurred, but minor reactions have occurred with an aspirin tablet. Just know that of all the millions of people who’ve had MRIs and received gadolinium, only one has died. Everything we put into our bodies, from the food we eat to what we drink to the vitamins we take, and especially the medicine, could/possibly/maybe/might cause a reaction – but it usually doesn’t. Gadolinium, for those with normal kidney function, is safer than most medicines.
I’ve heard stories of people going to sleep inside the MRI tunnel, but frankly, unless they’ve been given a sedative, I don’t believe these stories. It’s just too confining in there to be comfortable for sleep, and it’s far too noisy to sleep. I don’t think sleep would be a good idea, anyway. You might move something that shouldn’t be moved. You really need to be awake and alert unless you’re so severely claustrophobic you absolutely have to have a sedative.
Once the MRI sequence of scans is over, the technician will come into the room, slide you out of the tunnel, and you’ll be free to go home, or in my case at least one time, out to dinner. You can eat, drive (unless you’ve had a sedative, then you’ll need someone to drive you), do whatever you normally do. The hard part, of course, is waiting on the results, which could take one or two days, sometimes a little longer.
My MRI without contrast showed I had absolutely no “bright spots” in the white matter of my brain, no MS. I was grateful for this, but then I was pretty sure MS wasn’t my problem. It did show I had “something” in my left cerebellum, though, and that did concern me. Because I’d had an open MRI, in which the resolution is lower, and because I hadn’t had contrast, the radiologist was unable to tell if I had a tumor, a cyst, or what. He just didn’t know. So, I went to the hospital lab that night to have my blood taken for a kidney function test. That test showed I have normal kidney function, so the next afternoon, I had yet another MRI, with contrast, to see what the heck was in my brain that shouldn’t be there.
I had to wait twenty-four hours for the results, and I hate waiting. I did better than I thought I would, though, and when the results came back, I turned out to be one of the lucky ones. I have a small cyst – not a tumor, which is solid – but a cyst, which is fluid-filled, in my left cerebellum, probably something that’s been there since before birth. It’s no doubt filled with CSF (cerebral spinal fluid), and most probably not growing. I’ve always been totally asymptomatic. Most people with a cyst are. It was called “totally benign” by the radiologist. “Benign” means more than just “not cancer.” It means it’s totally harmless – to my brain and to me, and it needs no treatment. Some cysts do, but these usually present symptoms in infancy or adolescence and the treatment is usually pretty easy, relatively speaking, with a very quick recovery.
The point is, if an “incidental finding” is ever made on one of your MRIs, don’t panic. Cysts are pretty common. Most people never know they have them, and most people never have a problem with them. I’m scheduled to go back for a follow-up MRI in three months, but this is just a precaution. I’m not worried about it at all. I’m sure things will be just fine. And it is only a cyst. Many, many people live with these their whole lives, with not one problem. Many people you see walking around who’ve never had an MRI, no doubt have a harmless cyst in their brain. So, if you ever get this diagnosis, don’t worry. Things will be fine.
And my “feeling of shaking” symptom? In my case, it really is stress. I’ve always walked a lot – I’m a hiker – but I guess I’m going to have to do more.
Good luck to everyone with an MRI in his or her future. I hope you all get the good results I got, and I hope this will help allay any fears you might have had.
