A few days later I got my results: no new lesions. Plus, my thoughts can be a little dramatic sometimes. Moving out of the machine at last, I realized it wasn’t that bad - or maybe it was. “Are things closing in on me? I’m not going to make it out of here!”Ī minute later I felt my eyes shutting again, and I was back in my calm place. My eyes opened, and I instantly felt my heart racing. That would be a dream co-” And Then There’s the NoiseīOOM! EEK! Tap, tap! BOOM! The noises broke into my distracting thoughts. … “I wonder if there will be another reboot of Gilmore Girls.” … “I hope someday I get to go to a Lakers game. I lay down, covered up with blankets because the room is always cold, the technician handed me the emergency button in case I needed to get out of the machine - and off we went! The technician gave me earplugs to help muffle the loud noises, but seriously, who are they kidding? I heard everything. We got to the dimly lit room that houses the MRI machine, or as I like to call it, the tunnel to my nightmare. Walking down the hallway to the scanning room, I gave myself a pep talk: “No new lesions. New Lesions: Another Reason MRIs Are Scary I don’t want to panic and have to start over. We all fear something, and that’s my biggest fear … small spaces where I feel like everything is caving in on me and I might get stuck. Yes, I am quite tiny, but small spaces freak me out. You’ll have a lot of room in the machine. I told him I should be okay, because my doctor had prescribed a sedative for my claustrophobia. Not Everyone Will Support Your Choice to Take a Sedativeīefore my most recent scan to check for new lesions, the technician asked a few screening questions, including whether he should be aware of anything about me and MRIs, and whether there was any metal on my clothes. I can accept that they are a regular occurrence, but it’s something I’ll never get used to. MRI scans become a normal, every-year test for MS patients, but for someone with extreme claustrophobia, it’s added stress. I had naively thought that after the initial three scans, I’d be done with the nightmare machine.īoy, was I wrong. MRI scans are a big part of both the MS diagnosis process and routine care, which I learned when I was officially diagnosed. It was a tough 90 minutes, but I can confirm that I’m no longer hesitant about accepting a little help from a sedative. But I thought I’d just get it over with and go about my day. Who volunteers to spend 90 minutes in a noisy MRI machine first thing in the morning on their birthday? Me! That’s who. Well, me being me, the overachiever, I chose to schedule the cervical and thoracic (both spine) MRIs together on my birthday. I made it through the brain scan and then was told I was going to need two more scans of my entire spine. It worked! Lorazepam is now a friend of mine that holds my hand and calms me down for the dreaded MRI. Why not? If it works, great! If not, at least I tried. I was hesitant at first, but I agreed to give it a try. So he offered to prescribe me a sedative and explained that it would help keep me relaxed for the MRI scan. He shared with me that he is, so he likes to ask his patients. When my doctor suspected that I might have multiple sclerosis (MS), he asked if I was claustrophobic. I hadn’t realized it mattered or that anyone would care. I’d had magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) scans done in the past for medical reasons, but it was in 2021 that I learned I should’ve expressed my fear of tight spaces to my doctor. I guess it’s true what they say: You learn something new every day.
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