Noun: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. 

MRI Scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body.

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In the first week following diagnosis, this was just one of the many scans/tests I had to have.  As well as this I had a CT scan, PET scan, mammogram and ultrasound scans.  Of them all this is possibly the longest and most claustrophobic.

 

We’ve all seen the image of the cancer patient going into the tunnel of the MRI scanner on telly.  It actually feels quite familiar when you go into the room.

 

By the time you have your first MRI you will be totally comfortable with getting your baps out.  You’ll have your hospital robe on (fastened at the front, controversially) and you can keep your drawers on as long as they don’t have any metal in them.  You might want to keep your socks on (sexy, I know) as it can get a little chilly in there.

 

The nurse or radiographer will insert a canular into your arm and wire you up to a remote control so that they can administer contrast dye part way through the procedure.

 

Once you are wired up you lay face down carefully placing your boobs into a special boob hole on the bed.  The radiographer will squish them into the desired position, plonk some earphones on your head and give you an alarm to squeeze if you need to stop the scan at any point.

 

You might be asked if you want to listen to music while the scan is going on, but this is totally bloody pointless as the machine is so loud you may as well try listening to a lullaby whilst sitting on runway 1 at Heathrow.

 

Everyone then leaves the room and in you go to the scanner. 

In my experience, the process takes about 30 to 40 minutes, as long as you stay still, and all the images are captured first time.

 

You might not believe it, but it is really bloody difficult not to move for that amount of time, especially face down while you are being zapped in a very loud, snuggly fitting tunnel.

 

When the contrast dye goes in, there are no weird side effects as with the CT Scan contrast dye and you don’t feel like you have peed yourself.  Bonus.

 

Apart from taking a long time, the procedure is fairly OK and definitely not the worst you will have to endure throughout your treatment.

 

However, on one particular occasion, about 8 weeks into chemo and on a morning when I was feeling particularly nauseous, as soon as I laid down on the bed and was wired in to the contrast dye I thought, “I feel a bit sick”

 

I didn’t want to stop or delay the scan as one, I was keen to find out if my tumours had shrunk with the chemo and two, it took bloody ages to get to the hospital and I didn’t want to have to drive home and come back another day.

 

So, I didn’t say anything. 

 

About 15 minutes in I was green with nausea.  I had that horrible watery feeling in my mouth, and I couldn’t think of anything else other than getting out and running to the loo to be sick.  I desperately didn’t want to throw up all over the very expensive scanner and equally didn’t want to stop the process and have to come back another day, so I held on.

 

I squeezed the alarm a couple of times to ask how much longer and willed myself to not explode before the end of the process.

 

Eventually it was over.  I urgently begged the radiographer to remove the canular from my arm before I puked all over her, and I just managed to run to the loo in time where I subsequently threw my guts up.  It was a low point.  I would say I was as sick as a dog, but I have never seen a dog pee itself while it projectile vomits. I wasn’t a pretty sight.  I had to go home commando.

 

The plus side of being sick when you’re bald is that you don’t have to worry about getting sick in your hair.  Every cloud.

 

I laid down on the toilet floor for about half an hour before I felt like I could stand up and get myself cleaned up and dressed.  Luckily on this occasion Justin had come with me so I didn’t have to drive myself home.  He was waiting in the waiting room and I was gone so long he thought I might have been the first person to actually die in an MRI scanner.

 

The moral of the story is, don’t go into a very expensive medical scanner if you are feeling a little queasy.  Go home, drink peppermint tea and make an appointment for another time.