MRI - anxiety, couldn't go through with it.

[fingersandthumbs]

I was supposed to have an MRI scan today on my brain, but I panicked. I opened by eyes and there was a white frame right in front of my eyes and I needed to get out.

I felt too enclosed, claustrophobic and had to be taken out before they even started the scanner. The staff were lovely even though I wasted their time and told me to speak to the consultant who ordered the scan. His secretary has just told me it will be rearranged but despite me asking for support to get me through the scan she said I needed to get on with it.

I need to have this scan done and if it was as simple as just getting on with it I would have lay back on the bed and told them to try again. I've never experienced panic like this before. The thought of trying to do this again terrifies me. My hands are shaking as I type this and I'm nearly crying.

But I'm also so cross with myself, FFS, I'm 48 years old, I've been through things more scary than lying still on a bed for an hour! How can I get through this. Does anyone have any experience they can share.

Yes, I don't particularly like having MRIs on myself, either! But it helps if I remind myself what an incredible bit of kit it is, that the staff (my friends!) will get me out as soon as I buzz, that I could get myself out if I wanted to!

I talk to my patients between each sequence, too (unless it's a knee or foot and they're obviously fine, then me wittering on could get annoying!).

Don't so much worry about 'asking' for this and that- if the staff have it (music, a mirror, videos, eyemasks, bring-a-friend), they'll offer it as a matter of course.

The noise doesn’t bother me. Just the feeling of being trapped and buried alive and for those reasons I’ll never go in a conventional MRI again. I’d rather not have a diagnosis.

I wouldn’t even go in an open one unless it was a certain model and even then it would depend on what was being scanned. Again, I’d rather not a diagnosis. I’d just leave it to the Drs to try and work out.

For me it’s upright or nothing.

Flora that does seem a bit extreme!

I had no idea I was claustrophobic until I had an MRI on my cervical spine a few years ago. I am booked in for a brain scan in 2 weeks and I'm terrified.

It's because I'm so fat, and my arms touch the sides that I'm convinced I'll get stuck and have to be humiliated and cut out or something. I swear I'm an intelligent and educated woman normally.

So valium and don't tell the radiographer?

Flora that does seem a bit extreme!

It may well be but it’s also a patient making a decision as to what’s best for them.

Sedation has been mentioned in the past but in my mind that takes it to a whole new level of horror - being trapped and sedated and not able to help myself.

I swear I'm an intelligent and educated woman normally

I believe that you think you’re too fat for the machine. I did as well because my nose was almost touching the ceiling, then I realised my bust was up there as well, then I started thinking about my tummy. I felt like an elephant when I’m not. The mind really can play the most awful tricks on people.

I don’t know what to suggest to you. I really did just want to acknowledge how you feel and to say I know you’re an educated, intelligent woman.

I also believe you

I must be weird because I quite enjoy them and find them relaxing. I usually fall asleep and get annoyed when the "operator" (not sure of correct title) speaks to me to make sure I'm ok and tell me what's happening

Does anyone know if there’s any reason why if you were having an MRI of the head only, you couldn’t go in head first and have most of your body outside the scanner?

Head scans aleways go in head first

Ah right I didn’t know that, Carrie! So with a head scan, only the head goes in the scanner?

No, pretty much all of you ends up in the scanner fun what I recall. Only feet sticking out.

Wear an eye mask so if you do end up opening your eyes you’ll only see darkness. I’ve had one and felt very claustrophobic. I found doing things like my times tables in my head kept me focused and stopped me from being able to have anxious thoughts

I had an MRI last week, and they assured me that lots of people can't do it and if I was one, then sedation was available. They also have an open scanner if need be.

I was fine, as it happens. But you should never have been treated that way. I'm so sorry it happened. His secretary is being vile, and medically she's simply wrong, too.

There's an open MRI in Lancashire, I had a scan there
Had music for mine (5 of them done on my back now!), and what helped me was them saying look you could technically crawl out if you needed to. And keeping eyes shut and turning the noises into a little rhythm like a train

Thank you for the suggestions people are making re having an MRI but unfortunately its never as simple as people think. In fact the thought of going in one whilst wearing an eye mask for e.g. fills me with as much horror as the mention of being sedated for one.

If circumstances (my health) allow Im still only ever going to fly to a neighbouring country an hour away to have an upright one done. And if circumstances mean that can't happen then I'll go without.

I had one in May and was really scared. My DP came with me, but he had to wait outside. The radiographer were lovely, and when I told the person who was getting me into the machine how nervous I was, she took me round and explained all the parts of it to me, and really emphasised that I could stop it at every time. I was a bit testy by that point (embarrassing) and she was so kind and reassuring. What particularly helped me was that the man on the intercom told me how long each scan would last, and I counted in my head with breathing as it went on. (My scan was to check nerve issues in my face ref my teeth/facial pain, and I’d been taught breathing techniques by my dentist for root canal treatment previously.) The radiographers said afterwards that a lot of people stop it midway or before it even starts. The machine I went in had a gap at the head end with a mirror which was angled so I could see out of the window in the mirror - I think that probably helped a bit too. I was only in up to about my ribs for the head scan.

That should read teary, not testy.

Just a brief update: had my MRI yesterday. Had 5mg diazepam as prescribed by the GP. That dose achieved nothing. Had a panic attack the moment they slid me into the machine and had to be taken straight out again.

Managed to calm down enough to speak and dry my eyes, asked for something to cover my eyes, as they had thought me being able to see out with the mirror in the halo would help (nope, made me worse) and managed to get through it.

God I hope I never need another one. It was exhausting.

Well done, SilverHairedCat.

Can the professionals on the thread say what would happen if a patient refused an MRI scan? Presumably there are other tests, albeit less certain?

I had 2 MRI scans and a cat scan when I was 43. I suffered a head injury during skiing.

The MRI scan was daunting. Like you I don’t like to be ‘contained’ and I found it claustrophobic. Can you wear ear phones and listen to music. It’s cira 10 mins (if I remember right).

Oh and do not open your eyes!