More MRI fun!

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Bill in Oregon
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More MRI fun!

Post by Bill in Oregon »

I am due for two of these tomorrow -- cervical spine and lumbar spine. I have probably had close to a dozen over the past 30 years, the first one in one of the earliest machines that was very much like a torpedo tube. How I managed to stave off claustrophobia in that thing, I'll never know. It felt like being inserted into King Tut's sarcophagus. Some of the latest designs are much more open and therefore easier on the nerves. I have to confess that on the last one in one of the more enclosed machines, I finally got to where I had to press the panic button. I felt pretty silly, but the tech then put me in feet first and all was well.
The most amazing thing about MRIs for those of you who have not had the pleasure is the incredibly loud racket required to capture the imaging. It goes from loud staccato bursts of deafening buzzes, to hammering tones like a jackhammer. You get ear protection and sometimes a choice of music, but the tones overwhelm most of what you are trying to listen to.
I try very hard to think of fly fishing when I am in the belly of the MRI beast, and it helps. Who else has coping mechanisms?

:P
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by piller »

In the C-130 I just closed my eyes and did my best to bend whetever metal I could reach. When the Jumpmaster called for outboard personnel to stand up, I was always first. I couldn't wait to jump out. I have to take medication to fly commercial flights. 747s cause me to panic because they are enclosed. Propranolol works for me.
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Propranolol, eh? I just looked it up and it can be used for such anxieties as public speaking phobia! Geez, I might have finished law school ...

:lol:
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by Pete44ru »

Bill in Oregon wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 10:34 am
I try very hard to think of fly fishing when I am in the belly of the MRI beast, and it helps. Who else has coping mechanisms ?


I suffer from claustrophobia, so get Valium just before entering the snug-fitting torpedo tubes...…………………………. :mrgreen:


The 1st Gen torpedo tube machines are simply MRI's ; the 2nd Gen clamshell MRI's are called "open MRI's".

The buzzing is the resonance from the magnetic imaging; the jackhammer clicks are the movement of the "camera" onto the next picture slice as it moves down the body.



.
cnjarvis
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by cnjarvis »

Can you go somewhere with an open MRI? I had one myself a few months ago and it wasn’t uncomfortable or loud in the slightest.
Bill in Oregon
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Thanks guys. I live in a relatively small town of about 35,000 and I don't think there is an open machine in the county. No biggy. I could probably gulp a double martini ahead of time. :lol:
Pete, thanks for that intel on the noise sources.
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by crs »

I have had a couple and they were not bad. Doc was looking for heart problems and must have been OK because he did not panic and want to operate. :)
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wm
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by wm »

The first one was the worst. I suppose because I did not know what to expect.

After that they were just mildly awful.

I use a form of self meditation I learned from Lanny Bassham to calm myself. Involves deep breathing and focus. It isn't hard to learn but impossible to perfect.

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Re: More MRI fun!

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Two shots of Wild Turkey and a xanax....you'll sleep like a baby. I was last one off during a layover in Chicago....sitting there slobbering on my shirt when they woke me up. Don't drink anymore but xanax or klonipin are still my pals.

MRI's ain't nothin' as you know your getting out soon but a plane? Your stuck on there for hours. Hate planes...won't fly anymore.

Forgot how many times we used to sneak in the drive-in in the trunk.....with two-three other people.

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Re: More MRI fun!

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Here is a cervical MRI. I have circled the encroachment if the Atlas posterior arch into the brain stem/spinal cord area known as the decussation of the pyramidal tracks where 90% of the fibers cross r-l and l-r. This is at the root of most back pain.
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Re: More MRI fun!

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It’s been like 10 years that I worked on them. One of my hunting buddies who I know for years was my service competitor back then. He keeps me informed time to time on the new technical advances on them and others like CT, Nuclear, digital xray and such.

Out of all of them I enjoyed working the MRI the most. The most challenging to repair but very satisfying once you figure out the kinks. To me it’s like tuning a large grand piano with a tuning fork. It’s come a long way back then with large/wide bore and much, much quieter!

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Re: More MRI fun!

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If I take a Xanax, I lose 24 to 36 hours. GONE! If I take a Klonopin or a Valium, I lose 72 to96 hours of my life. I refuse to ever again take a benzodiazepine. The rest of you could take a Rohypnol, aka roofie, every 8 hours to find out what Xanax, Ativan, Valium, Klonopin, Temazepam, Triazolam, Carisoprodol, and a few others in that family do to me.
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: More MRI fun!

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O.S. that is interesting. I've had two fusions and a laminectomy, lumbar, plus two rounds of injections and stuff is getting worse. When I mentioned to my surgeon I was also having numbness in the little and ring fingers of both hands he suggested the cervical study as well, saying that undiagnosed cervical issues can have a significant effect on areas served by vertebrae further down the spine. The finger numbness correlates with C-8, but there could be more the story.
Not that I have prattled on about health issues, I think I deserve some votes for fuddy old geezer of the month!

:lol:

Mainehunter, just what is inside an MRI?
Last edited by Bill in Oregon on Sun Feb 10, 2019 3:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Piller, good thing you are a pharmacist and know all this stuff in self-defense.
8)
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Have had multiple MRI over the years for various issues. Being a large guy, barely fit in them, especially my shoulders! Claustrophobia has become very serious as I have aged. To even get me near the tube requires nurse/assisted sedation. One time I had to have two in one day, so with the second sedation, there was a lot of discussion to minimize the chance of completely knocking me out. Older smalltubes was was abig problem. Open MrI is an issue also as anything near my face triggersthe panic. Even sedated I have got out of the tube on my ownfaster than they can respond to my pushing the panic button. Even writing about past MR I raises my pulse!!!!
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Re: More MRI fun!

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My sister had LASIK several years ago and still doesn't remember anything. Her husband was there, and he says she was joking around and took orders in a way that she never has at any other time. She woke up the next morning and told him that it was time to go for the appointment. She didn't believe him until she felt the bandages on her eyes.
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by Sixgun »

Old Savage...I'd like to see that entire picture....without the x ray turned on!

TWHBC.....I hear ya on the panic issue.....try having a full blown Menieres attack and claustrophobia will look like child's play to deal with..---6
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Best to ya Bill, i`ve had three of them they were trying to figure out why my brain is so big and smarter than everyone else.
They finally gave up as the power in my brain fried the machine. :lol:
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Pitch, I'll bet they saw some of the darnedest Rube Goldberg contraptions with gears, wheels, pullies and steam engines while they were poking around in there.

8) :lol:
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by 2ndovc »

Bill,
The newer MRI machines are no big deal. I've had many from my four month vacation at the Clev. Clinic. If you don't have to get an iv with the contrast dye, which you shouldn't for spinal issues, you will be fine. A lot of people are allergic to the contrast dye, I have an extreme reaction to it and it's awful! Imagine the worst case of poison ivy possible and then wrapping yourself in an electric blanket and sitting in front of a roaring fire. Just the worst!
Best wishes for your back issues to be resolved. My wife has been having terrible back pain due to arthritis and just started getting some injections in her spine. She's still hurting but I've noticed that she's moving around a little easier.

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Bill in Oregon
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Jason, I found out the hard way I was allergic to contrast dye when getting a CAT scan about 10 years ago. They had to shoot me up with Benadryl right on the table. I wouldn't wish anaphylactic shock on anyone -- not even the Speaker of the House.

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Re: More MRI fun!

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I have this feeling that all the noise and stuff is simply a distraction... to make you think something is happening... but in actuality, it's all an elaborate fraud to up the charges... it's actually done in about 3 minutes, before all the noise and vibration... as that would make the actual results blurry and indistinct.
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Re: More MRI fun!

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piller wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 10:43 am 747s cause me to panic because they are enclosed.
Funny you should mention that . I’ve been regularly flying back and forth to the Philippines for over ten years now and I find myself needing to remind myself once aboard that I’m on the plane and can’t get off etc etc . It’s been awhile since I took a long flight (over three hours) that I didn’t have an aisle seat or was atleast in an emergency exit aisle so I had leg room and didn’t need to crawl over anyone to get out . When I first started doing this I could get a window seat sleep thru most of the 12-14 hour flight and NEVER get up to wizz . Ten years later that ain’t the case anymore , now I need to be able to get up without asking anyone to move and take a wizzz every couple hours .
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Re: More MRI fun!

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wm wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 12:03 pm
The first one was the worst. I suppose because I did not know what to expect.

I hear that !

Back when I first had to have an MRI, they were so new & expensive that the only one in my state ( a torpedo tube type) was mounted inside a modified box trailer so it could be moved in a rotation to other hospitals in the state.

The entrance/ante room was simply ample space in a monitoring room, which was sectioned off from the machine room, in one end of the trailer.

However, there was a huge glass picture window in the partition between the monitoring room & the MRI, so the person monitoring could also directly view the MRI/patient.

When I looked through the window upon arrival, all I saw was a blank wall with a hole in it...………….. with somebody's bare feet sticking out.

I felt doomed, as I thought it looked like a morgue...……..it gave me the heebie-jeebies.


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Re: More MRI fun!

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Sixgun wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 5:17 pm Old Savage...I'd like to see that entire picture....without the x ray turned on!

TWHBC.....I hear ya on the panic issue.....try having a full blown Menieres attack and claustrophobia will look like child's play to deal with..---6
No kidding, thanks....Now I can put a name on it. I'll bet I've had that all my life. It's miserable stuff...
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Well, i was in the tube for about an hour, but by keeping my eyes closed and trying to think through some genealogy, I made it through. :D
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Re: More MRI fun!

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Blaine...many different forms of vertigo......Menieres is when the inner ear fills with fluid and then when it's full you go bonkers...sometimes these "bonkers" are so-so and other times they will lay you flat on the ground with zero control. There is no known cause and no cure...only management....I've become an expert at it...

Any degree of attack will keep you home with fear of going anywhere...in between attacks, you are a "nothing", accomplishing little, no way you can drive,

One of the most misdiagnosed ailments, doctors know little and attribute your problems to all kinds of different pelosi, sometime prescribing meds that make it worse. You pretty much spend your life saying to yourself, "WTF????".-----6

I've been meaning to have a post on this. Maybe if I get enough interest on this thread I will.
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Re: More MRI fun!

Post by piller »

Six, don't cut your ear off.
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