Hannibal Lector and blood red cubicles….MRI

Had the MRI, well that was an experience! Took my BFF since nursery with me for moral support, we had a total giggle attack in the changing cubical of the Royal Free at 8.45am. To start with the cubicle was painted blood red, weird colour choice….

The gown,  I first put on frontwards, so the strings did up and the back, but then noticed a sign on how to put the gown on!!!! The sign explained in detail, how which tie did up with which tie (they are supposed to be colour coded but the colour had long since washed out)…it took us about 10 mins to put this gown on in the blood red intensity….

My mate then had her work cut out helping every other patient  all of whom had difficulty…its like some sort of initiation challenge.

The actual MRI was quite horrific, I was strapped to a board with a belt around my middle, to monitor breathing, another flat board laid onto of my abdominal area, then the technician put headphones on me to help with the noise. The board retracted into a tube about the size of a toilet roll, it was all very stream punk, but fused with a techno Gaba rave, I was physically and mentally shocked a few times by the off beat, repetitive beats all around, so noisy…

I slowed my breathing to deal with the anxiety that I started to feel, my partner, a welder, told me a story about someone he knew who'd lost an eye in his MRI because of a shard of metal from years ago that burst out under the magnetic force…so for some reason that is where my mind wanted to hang out at first, I used my breath to clam and focus on other things. Then a stern voice, with a South African accent, came over the head phones, 'Breath normally I have to take the images on the exhalation and we'll be here forever if you breath like that.' I burst into tears, not liking this one little bit. Calmed myself and endured the rest of the 40 mins imagining that he was actually Hannibal Lector, and I was trapped in a torture chamber….Don't you just love the human mind.

After all that, the results weren't good enough and they have raised a CAT Scan…..so I have decided to wait until I finish the meds in 7 weeks time and will have one then….