Sedation for MRI

[TheOldSwitch]

Any experience of teens having sedation for MRIs? I once had light sedation for a camera down my throat and honestly it did bugger all for me!

They say to turn up to the ward 2 hours before the scan. If they give her the injection that early then won't it wear off by the time she needs it?

Will she be flat out fast asleep or still awake?

My other concern is having a wee. She has had trouble with interoception before due to autism. Will she be so deep asleep she could pee herself? Or will she be awake enough to get up and use the loo if I remind her?

I later found out my child was crying her eyes out and begging to stop the test but the nurse just ignored her
That is absolutely appalling and worthy of a strong complaint. Was it actually a nurse, or was it the radiographer who was doing the scan?
Did they give her the button to press to ask them to stop? If they say they’ll stop if you want, and then they don’t stop, that’s an appalling betrayal of trust.

In over 20 years of working in radiology, and supporting hundreds of distressed patients (of all ages) through these procedures I have never known a radiographer ignore a patient when asked to stop a scan. This absolutely needs a letter PALS so that the staff involved never do it again.

Yes I am considering a complaint. It was the nurse who ignored her crying, she needed one to go in with her as she was medicated and they wouldn't let me go in as well, only one at at time.

Why would they restrict the numbers? There’s plenty of room in an MRI scan room, (unless it’s a mobile scanner in a truck) I’ve stayed in with parents, nurses and several other people. I’d never dream of preventing a parent staying with an anxious child. Please feed this back to PALS.

Oh god, I really feel for you and your DD @TheOldSwitch . I've had to have a lot of MRIs. I'm claustrophobic and didn't think I'd be able to do it but have somehow managed without sedation. I was coming here to say that but I see that your DD is autistic and has had panic attacks with previous MRIs. My DD is autistic and has had extreme anxiety with medical procedures so I really sympathise. I would be upset too in your shoes.

@TheOldSwitch I'm SO sorry that both you & your young person had such a stressful time. Were they able to perform the MRI to a suitable standard or will it need re-doing?

My experience was my 19 y/o Ds, 6ft1, beard, (looks about 30!) being taken from the High Needs ward (where he'd been in heart failure for 5 days) for a full cardiac contrast MRI. (the one where they also click a massive plastic 'belt' over your chest & give a contrast dye that 'tastes ' weird & makes you think you've wet yourself & it takes nearly an hour) Despite being aware he was Autistic, and severely Dyslexic they took him down when I'd gone to the loo, shoved a form at him & gave him almost no support.
Perhaps this is why the 3 subsequent MRIs have required quite a bit of Diazepam.
Trauma which could so easily have been avoided.

I hope you & your Dd can have a quiet few days x

This is a bit of an advert. The first MRI I went to I didn't even get in the machine. I asked on here about finding a hypnotherapist and I was recommended to contact @eyesopenwideawake.

The next time I went for a repeat MRI I did the entire thing with no problem, I did have a bit of diazepam too.