Worrying about my brain MRI yesterday and why they took an extra set of images… any radiographers here?

[Happydaisydoo]

So I had a brain MRI yesterday for an investigation as to why I have pulsatile tinnitus. The scan was brain, ear and veins around that area.

I was in there for around 20 mins. He did the last set of images and said ‘right just five more minutes’ then at the end of that he said ‘ just need to do another set it will be five mins’. This freaked me out as I was already a worrying wreck in there but kept myself calm counting the minutes so the extra unexpected 5 had me so nervous.

Now I am really worried as to why he needed an extra set? I didn’t move at all I was so so careful and now I’m thinking they have found something horrible…

the scan was without contrast.

Bumping for you as I don't know the answer.

Although you have two ears so maybe one set per side?

Lots of people have tinnitus so I wouldn't be too worried about it. Was this an nhs scan? What did they tell you they were looking for when you got referred?

Ooo this happened to me when I was being tested for multiple sclerosis!! I was scheduled for a brain MRI and sat in there for 20 minutes of pure ANXIETY.

When they finally got me out he said 'sorry, we need to now do a spine one'. Another 25 minutes!!!

I absolutely freaked out. Everything came back normal though! Turns out the doctor had just ordered a few more images to be extra thorough to rule out other conditions too.

Hay.

You may of breathed and the picture wasnt as clear or they just decided to do more while you were in the scanner for no particular reason

So although very very unlikely the one major thing they will be looking for is a vestibular schwannoma / acoustic neuroma, it is a noncancerous tumour that develops in the hearing and balance nerves in the inner ear and can cause tinnitus

Its ‘officially’ classed as a brain tumour but that makes it sound alot more scary than it is

Alot of them are tiny and only need monitoring every year or two with a scan

I have a brain tumour and have had many, many MRIs. In my experience there are loads of reasons a scan might be longer than you were initially told (they've spotted the consultant requested an extra image, an image wasn't taken right eg you breathed and moved, the image was programmed wrong so they need to redo - all of these are highly in technical and radiographers would correct my terminology but I think the general ideas are right!) However my main advice would be to try not to read too much into it - or anything really that a doctor does / doesn't do, says / doesn't say. You'll drive yourself crazy second guessing and it does no good!

Thank you.

I was fortunate enough to get private via my employer. They did a hearing test, looked in my ears and a pressure test. All of these were normal so next step was the MRI.

Oh gosh I would not have coped for another 25 at all!!!

Thank you. I had a mirror attached to my head coil and all I could see was the tech doing the scan and then showing the screen to the other tech when he came back in and that just threw me.

I hope you are ok and your tumour is nothing super serious :(

Thank you. They did mention this being the most sinister thing they could find but the risk was low. I have terrible health anxiety and anxiety/fear of hospitals and anything medical so just hoping no further tests or ops etc x

At least with it being private you'll get your results super quickly. Hopefully nothing to worry about. I've had a few MRIs where they've added extra stuff on the end and they've turned out fine.

I have one
Had it for afew years

They are normally very low risk and low chance of needing a operation, especially if your only symptom is Tinnitus (Although it is annoying i agree)

Your message has really calmed me.
the tinnitus is annoying but as long as it is nothing imminently threatening I can totally live with it :)

And you got an answer for why the one person doing the scan showed the other one, probably that it was blurry. He's prob says do we need to do that one again and the other guy said yeah probably as she must have breathed.

So that's good that there could be genuine reasons for it and no need to stress until the results are in.

If you move in an MRI then the image is blurry and they need to do it again. Also sometimes the tech person decides the settings on the machine weren't quite right and they need different settings.

My mum has tinnitus and was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma over 20 years ago. Still has some monitoring but otherwise no treatment is needed.

@Happydaisydoo sorry for posting on an old thread but going through something similar. What was the outcome of
yours?

I had an MRI for pulsatile tinnitis. All clear. Three years on still got it.

I'm also going through similar. I've had balance issues for the past couple of months plus tinnitis for a couple of years, and have been referred to ENT for urgent scan next week. I'm very grateful to hear about others' experiences.