private mri such as prescan: experiences?

[OsloGin]

DSIL has been feeling unwell since February. She is tired and has swollen glands and nightsweats. Her gp has run lots of bloodtests and urine and stool samples and nothing has turned up. DSIL is a real trooper and just carries on but she's just getting more and more run down. We're all quite concerned about her. Her gp hasn't suggested anything further apart from watching her symptoms. One solution might be for the family to club together for a full body scan/MRI thing. Google has thrown up prescan in London. Has anyone used this kind of thing or have any recommendations?

Please don't do this without GP input as it could be a waste of time and money. I'm not saying don't go privately if needs be, just get advice on what to actually pay for.

I've been for a 'cheap' (£350) MRI which turned out to be ok but of limited use because the equipment they used is quite old and not of the quality now used.

Yor family sounds lovely and supporting your SIL is great but it might be a case of supporting her rather than finding a cure IYSWIM? She may have a chronic fatigue problem or similar and expensive scans won't help.

I wish you all well in finding a solution.

I would agree with Matilda, if the doc has done lots of blood tests along with the others they would normally show something wasn't right if it was that bad. Scans aren't the be all and end all, the radiologist needs a bit of a clue as to what they are looking for. There are also lots of different kinds of scans which show different things so one scan, I take it you are thinking it might show a tumour? And that Might not be the type you would be best getting.

A friend had a private scan here at a bmi hospital and they paid 600 for it, this was abdominal and chest scan. they had been to a gastro doc and he ordered the scan. Scan showed absolutely nothing.

Thanks for this. Yes we don't want to dive into this without careful thought. Good point about blood tests being sensitive enough to pick up most things.

Having said that, I'm assuming you might be worried about lymphoma or something similar? I had similar worries once and paid two hundred pounds to see a lymphoma specialist privately. She was very reassuring but if anything had been wrong, she could have referred me through the nhs for treatment if she thought I was ill.

Thank you. Yes lymphoma has been considered. I didn't know you could book to see a specialist privately for a one off consultation. Glad things turned out ok for you.

One thing the specialist did say that was reassuring in my case was that the lymph glands are usually very swollen ie golf ball size and night sweats are utterly drenching. Obviously that is not always the case but it was very reassuring to see someone who saw lymphoma all the time. I googled lymphoma specialist and my home town and ended up going to nearest big city about half an hour away. Hope your sil is ok.

oslo yes you can book a specialist in most BMI/BUPA hospitals privately - you don't always need referred from your GP.

I'd do it. I suffered from 'IBS' for years, GPs advising more fibre, water etc. I paid £600 to LifeScan, who discovered a pancreatic tumour. I was very lucky, it was benign but still had to be removed in a seven hour op.

Thanks for the replies. I've been looking after her DCs for a couple of days to give her a break. She is seeing her GP again this week and I am going to look into private appointments/scans. Her nightsweats are intermittent but when they happen they are drenching.

Moggiek your story is interesting. Thank goodness you made it through that!

Thank you, Oslo. I never like to think about what might have happened if I hadn't had the scan done.