Getting an MRI for the First Time

Today, I went back in to the Chicago Center for Surgery of the Hand. I was scheduled for an MRI, so that a closer inspection could be done on my wrist.

On arriving in the MRI room, I was told to remove all metallic objects and to place them in a secure locker. I’ve heard horror stories regarding MRIs… mostly having to do with the fact that they’re crazy-strong magnets, and are basically ALWAYS “On.”

The MRI tech was named Joe, and he was pretty cool about answering all my questions and concerns. At the onset, I asked if I could take a photo of the machine and he obliged. My initial suspicion was that, due to the extremely strong magnetic field… I wouldn’t be allowed very near the actual machine. But Joe gave me some good distance guidelines, and I was able to sneak in a step or two into the room.

Outside the MRI room, and a strong warning sign to accompany the strong magnetic field. Earlier, I had to fill out a form stating that I didn’t have a pacemaker, metal implants, shrapnel wounds, etc.

Here’s the setup of the room, along with the machine. My job was to sit and recline in the chair, and to hold my arm inside that donut-shaped area, and to hold it still for about 45 minutes.

I was given a lot of cushions for my head and feet, and Joe added in a lot of smaller cushions into the donut-area, to keep my hand/wrist in the right position.

The whole time there were a series of slight noises. The one that kept recurring was a sound that was something like a mechanical heart, pumping, and immediately followed by some kind of small valve releasing pressure. There were also a series of deep hums and clicks as the machine re-adjusted itself, during and between scans.

Before leaving the room, Joe asked if I needed anything more: a blanket perhaps, or the lights dimmed. I ended up choosing the lights out, which made things markedly more peaceful/tranquil.

What I loved about the morning, and this whole process? Sure it was a bit of a hassle, and sure it was a bit difficult to hold still. But compared to the hectic kind of day I had yesterday… this whole procedure, this whole “getting an MRI” deal was quite possibly the best thing I could have imagined.

Basically, my job this morning was to be at rest. To be motionless, and to stay as still as possible. It was pretty great – to have someone out and out say “You need to not move. You need to sit back, relax, and not do anything at all. Or else.”

After the process (I think I fell asleep towards the end), I asked Joe a few more questions. I found out the cost of the MRI machine itself runs somewhere around $600,000. Half the cost was for the software to process/render the images, and the other half was for the magnet/machine itself.

On asking if he had heard any MRI horror stories… he told me about a few. One involved a terrible accident where a child was in a large MRI machine (the kind in the movies where your whole body goes in) and she started crying. Her mother, who was outside, ran in to the room… but she had a pen on her at the time. That pen, because of the strong magnetic field, ended up turning into a projectie and killed the little girl.

The other stories involved janitors and cleaning crew at hospitals. These, he told me, were more common back in the 1970’s when MRIs were still relatively new (the mother/daugher story was from about 4 years ago, and slightly more recent). Back before stricter rules were put into place, sometimes janitors would walk into a room that had an MRI machine and not know that it was basically “On.” As a result, a lot of their equipment that had metal (mops, buckets, tools) would go flying about – pretty dangerous stuff.

On leaving, I thought to ask about whether or not I could get a copy of my MRI data. Joe handed me a CD that was meant for a radiologist to review (he said he’d burn another copy for the doctor). It’s a PC-specific disc, so I’ll need to fire it up on my Mac at work, using Parallels. Not quite sure what to expect there, but I guess we’ll see.

Totally random and unrelated: on the way out, I spotted a tiny Smart Car. It’d been about 2 years since I last saw one of these guys, and I was just tickled to see one actually out and about in the wild.