MRI: Monstrous Reverberating Incubator

MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRI: May Render Insane
MRI: Massive Raucous Invasion

I had my protons realigned today.*  Really. Not in a Star Trekish way, but by a torturous device called a MRI.

When I mentioned to people I was going to have a MRI for my lower back (sciatica), every one responded with, “Oh, I couldn’t stand that thing. I had to be pulled out/sedated/use an open MRI.” They were all claustrophobic and just the memory of being in the narrow tube made their eyes wide with fear.

I have absolutely no problem with the enclosed aspect. I close my eyes so I don’t see the top of the tunnel only inches from my nose. I know I can push the panic button if I need it and the technician will talk to me and/or let me out. No problem.

I DO have a problem with the sounds. Strange, obnoxious, make-your-body-vibrate type of sounds. The same people who were terrified of the enclosed space gave me a funny look when I said the sounds frighten me.

Want to have a small sample of a MRI? Click on the link below, turn your speakers up really loud, and put your head right next to the speakers. Imagine this going on for twenty minutes.

Sample MRI Sounds

This is the fourth MRI I have had in my life. The sounds vibrate into my chest and make me feel like my heart arrhythmia is acting up. The only way I get through a MRI is by mentally talking to myself. Ear plugs don’t really help. It’s all a mind game for me.

I use different tactics. Sometimes I try to make sense of the sounds. “I’m parked by a construction site and there’s a jackhammer.” “I’m at home and the neighbor is using power tools. I hope he stops soon.” “Music is starting. Different tones are added.”

Or, I just try to distract myself. I sing songs, pray, count from 100 backward by 3’s, think about the plot of a book I’m reading, and think about the YouTube video, “Charlie bit my finger.”

Charlie bit my finger  (link to a cute video of two young English brothers)

I made it through the test, a bit dizzy and headachy. I’m so glad it’s done and it went better than I imagined. A MRI is not fun, but it beats being cut open to see what’s inside, right?

* “Typically MRI causes the body to emit a signal,” explains Jim Rosato, head interventional MRI technologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “As the protons—the nuclei—of the hydrogen atoms in our body spin, they form north and south poles, but they can be facing in different directions. Once the patient goes into the magnet, it causes all the protons to align in one direction.” With a magnetic field strength 10 thousand times greater than the earth’s, the electromagnet in the Signa SP has plenty of power to perform this feat.

“The banging, jackhammer sound people hear during MRI is actually caused by the electromagnetic gradients, or radio waves, switching on and off extremely fast,” Rosato continues. “This causes the protons, which are now lined up with the main magnetic field, to flip 90 degrees. Each time the radio pulse switches off, the protons go back to their original position. When they do that, they emit an electromagnetic signal—a radio frequency signal, like FM radio—and that’s picked up by the ‘antenna,’ or the coil,” hence magnetic “resonance.”