January 20, 2024
MRI-Liver
About twenty years ago, my first experience with a CT machine was at a trauma center after a motorcycle wreck. Several broken ribs, a collarbone broken lengthways, and a significant amount of morphine later, the only thing I remember is that I sat up too quickly and had a really close-up in-person meeting with the nearest trash can. Thankfully everything is blurry because of all those other reasons and nothing they could find in my head and neck area. Beyond a few classic x-rays, that’s been the extent of my experience with medical imaging. Until now…
For anyone keeping count, I’m currently at 1 PET, 2 CT, and 4 MRI scans. Today was the fourth, next week will add a fifth. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have each and every one of them, the information they’ve provided my doctors and surgeons, and the results that the combination of all those things have provided me. That said, each and every one has two distinct sides. One side is wanting to know exactly what they’ll say and knowing exactly where and how things are. The other side is absolutely positively not wanting to know what they’ll say and living in blissful ignorance. Each and every time, I end up on the wanting to know side and even more wanting to know what we’ll be doing because of the information we’ve obtained. As I said in a comment not long ago, I want to know what the next step is and no matter what, I’m ready to do that thing (at least at that moment). I’ve found steps can be forward, seemingly backward, or sometimes sideways or something like that. But out of the gate, I’m usually ready to go. Later, as a date approaches, I can get a little hesitant, but I push forward through those moments the best I can. These next two opportunities (today and Tuesday) will be the same way, I’m sure.
Here’s a little history of my MRIs. MRI ONE was by far the worst. I hadn’t really looked into them and didn’t really know what to expect. I figured from what I had heard I’d spend some time in a tube, there’d be some sounds, and then I’d be done. I tend to feel more comfortable in close spaces (sorta reverse claustrophobia) so I had no concerns about that. Well… yeah… turns out there was more to it than that. I got no ear plugs or headphones. Nobody explained anything including the panic squeeze thing (I figured that out myself). I wasn’t ready for the intensity of the noise, but most disturbing was the randomness of the tones and sequence. I was given guidance on each section’s length (5, 10, 10 min or so) but I lost count of the total, and I was in the machine for well over an hour. When I left I never wanted to do that like that ever again. Luckily, as I said, this one was the worst. Every single one since has been way better than this. I spent some time letting DeeGee and Sarah-Lauren hear what it was like from videos on YouTube.
MRI TWO was lovely. It was in a similar environment as my PET scan with ceiling murals, windows, and natural light. The technician was super friendly, explained everything, put me at ease, and even gave me tips for getting a better scan. I got some ear plugs and headphones and even got to pick my local NPR station to listen to. The noises were still there and significant (they always seem to be for me) but they were all tolerable. This one was less than an hour, but to be fair I think there was a little less area to scan than the first one. When I left that one, I was happy and basically just blathered on about how much better it was for awhile.
MRI THREE was just barely below MRI two in every area but time. This time I got to pick Christmas music but it was kinda low volume so the noise kept me from really keeping up with the songs. Comfort, headphones, etc. were great. The issue with this MRI was that I had two areas to be scanned scheduled back to back for this one session. Long (really long) story short, I went in late morning and came out 2 hours and 45 minutes later in the afternoon having no idea what time it was. Everything was fine except for the fact that through the office visit and pre-op visit afterwards I was zoned out and never was completely sure what time of day it was. If at all possible, I will never schedule a back to back MRI of those two areas again because it took way way way too long.
Which brings us to MRI FOUR, a single area scan early this morning. If you’ve made it this far, I’ll give it away and say that this one has moved to the top of my Best MRI So Far List. Everything was explained and comfortable and I got to pick my own genre of music, and this time I was ready. “EDM,” I said confidently, then noticed a kind of unknowing pause from the nurse helping me with everything. So I went with “Techno? EDM/Techno?,” I said hopefully. I got an “ok” response so I felt like maybe it would at least be close and it was. Definitely more techno but that worked (next time I may bring an index card with deadmau5 and whatnot written on it). It was amazing. For the most part it did its best to blend with the random magnetic/electronic clangs of the machine, but one of the great parts were the instructions that break in and tell the patient to “Breathe in… breathe out…” then “Breathe in… and hold it,.” And “Now resume breathing.” randomly dispersed throughout and almost qualified it as a track. I literally had to remind myself not to move to the beats. I was so thrilled. A few lights, lasers, a fog machine, and we’d be done. 🙂 As awesome as this was though, what put this one over the top was the slightest little breeze that constantly blew from the end past my head and down toward my feet. Any stronger and it might have been a little irritating or chilly, but it was just right. I hadn’t noticed how stuffy it could get inside there without something like that. It was like the slightest whisper of fresh cool air that reassured me and kept me really comfortable. Obviously it was built into the machine, (Ok, I stretched my eyes as far back as possible and finally saw the two little vents I think, it does get a little boring in there.) but take from that what you will spiritually about that relief as well.
Instead of adding it to each one (because I forgot), I’ll put a few more things here at the end. There’s been a little bit of prep instructions for me to do before each kind of scan (PET, CT, MRI) and I’ve always tried to follow each one as closely as as possible and had no problems. Most are easy for me like not eating a few hours before and staying hydrated. Others are a little more involved with monitoring my blood sugar levels, drinking different types of contrast materials at specific times, and let’s go with what we’ll call more colon related preparations but nothing like a colonoscopy. During all the scans I’ve had IV contrasts without any issues. I think they can affect some people but at most I’ve felt a little warm or cold sensation in my ears for a few seconds. Of course each and every person that starts the IV gets my standard “If you start it in my hand I may pass out.” warning. More on that in one of our first posts. But overall they’ve all gone well.
I plan to write more on this later, but for now I just want good clear accurate results from this scan. If things have gotten smaller or better in some way that’d be great. If not, I still want to know exactly what’s there and what we’re gonna do about it. If you pray or think good thoughts, then please do that as you see fit. As for me, I’d like to have the results that I’m meant to have and wherever that leads. Nothing else specifically, because I’m sure I don’t know everything about what I need and when.
Current Interests: Not temperatures below 20 (actually 50) vs cold sensitive side effects, still watching Mannix cars change, NFL playoffs, watching the Cowboys choke and lose, not having to watch the Falcons choke or lose, watching the Lions win, watching “Dem Boyz” choke and lose.
