MRI

Have a pinched nerve in my back . Went for a MRI yesterday . Told me my shoulders would touch . I wasn't sure I'd even fit as I'm kind of a fat boy . Layed down and they ran me in . When I opened my eyes my nose was almost touching . Told them to LET ME OUT.Have an open MRI Tuesday. Don't know how anybody can stand the closed ones

Forgot to say I did take a chill pill . It didn't do anything .

Had one done a couple years back for nech and shoulder - No problem - 
Might be I use to make the copper core used in all the machines when I worked in Industrial Chemical Milling business - We made the machined copper used for the magnets - made them for GE and all their  subsidiaries  world wide . Some real large boards with .040 copper and heavy boards with .125 copper laminated onto FR4 backing . 
 Largest were about 4 ft by 6 ft with .040 copper , heaviest were around 100 pounds of copper before machining 

Tech told me that I was the sixth one last week that couldn't handle it . Open one Tuesday sounds easy peasy . Don't think a towel would've helped unless it was soaked in clorafom .

EJ, hope all goes well and you can get all healed up. Never had an MRI but I think I could handle it okay, crawling into fighter jet intakes to inspect turbine blades didn't bother me and I have spent a lot of time crawling around in houses full of smoke and fire where I couldn't see chit.

Thanks for all the well wishes . This pinched nerve has been hurting me since October . Should have listened to my wife and seen the Dr sooner . Did hurt myself messing with a green tractor .

The one I had, back in 2000 or so, wasn't too bad, I figgered if they stuck me in that little hole, they can damn sure drag my a$$ out...

I've had several when I had back problems, I weighed about 170 at the time, never had any claustrophobia, like Shameless, all the banging and buzzing and feeling the hair on my arms move, there was no way I was sleeping.  However, once they gave me an open MRI, technician told me it would take 3 hours instead of 1 like the enclosed ones.  I told him with my back there was no way I could lay still for 3 hours with the pain I was in.  He told me to just try so then he proceeded to give me the contrast shot.  I don't think it was his first rodeo either because there was more than contrast in that needle, next thing I knew, it was 3 hours later and  he was shaking my arm telling me we were done. 

Doctor told me I needed one.

Edited by Unit3 - 08 Dec 2018 at 11:48pm

Conquering anxiety is usually best accomplished by understanding, and relating.

Let's say you're in that MRI machine, and it wigs you out.

Imagine yourself laying beneath an antique car, and you're inspecting the clutch. 

You're still in a tight space, but you KNOW the car isn't going to fall on you... so you're safe.

The MRI machine works by transmitting magnetic waves through your body.  Your tissues and bone all pass magnetic waves, but due to density and composition, each tissue type does it a little differently, and using the return echo to paint an image of the varying densities of tissue.

In order for the machine to work properly, you have to maintain a known position, and stay still.  If you don't, the return echos will be all distorted, and the image will look like you strapped a Nikon to a running jackhammer, to take a family portrait.

I had an MRI done after my C5/C6 collapse, and the biggest issue I had, was that my left arm was totally numb and amidst constant spasms... there was nothing I could do that would stop them, and even knocking me out wouldn't.

Fortunately, the area they were needing to see the most, was not my arm, but where the nerve clusters (ulnar and radial) went through neck into spine, which was plenty stable.

I frequently don't like tight spaces, but I just close my eyes and place myself under the '29 Ford A, the day I swapped the engine for Dad.  The car had been wrapped around a tree at one time, and the frame had a slight gink in it somewhere, such that the back two pads wouldn't quite allow the engine in place... so my only choice was to be underneath, with a jack, tryin' to push 'em apart.  Well, that engine slipped down on top of me, I wound up holding it up with my right thigh and two arms... I was kinda pinned, and there was nobody within earshot of me when it slipped down, so I just had 'ta rest there and hold it up.  They came lookin' for me when I didn't answer the dinner call, and Dad hauled up on the chain a bit so I could get cleaned up and fed.

The MRI wasn't all greasy, sharp, and cold... so I'm fine with it.  Bettern' standing on my head tryin' to replace the starter on an offshore racing boat!!!

Only you would fart in an enclosed space. 

Would you feel any better if I told you that you will be inside a huge electro magnet that has between 600-1000 amps of current running through a wire the size of piano wire? It can run that much current through such a small wire because it is cooled down to such a low temperature that the wire has no resistance. The wire is placed inside a channel of copper that is much larger so that if magnet cooling is lost and the coils become resistive that the larger copper channel will take the current and this not burn the small wire in two as that would ruin the magnet. When that happens it is called a quench and all that current is turned into heat and it boils off the liquid helium that keeps the wire at a super conductive temperature. That is your lesson for today........we will have a quiz tomorrow.

God luck with the scan. I have been both a patient and a test subject a few times when I was working on them there darn machines. 😜