MRI - What to expect

[hannaaah666]

Hello everyone!!
For those of you who've read about my story before, I'm feeling much better after the recent trip to hospital!

Tomorrow I have my first ever MRI scan on my abdomen and bowel. I was fine about this until I re-read the letter a minute ago and it said "...lasts 30 minutes... you will be asked to drink a liquid..."
My previous experiences with "liquid" have not been nice (Several types of bowel prep and a barium meal). What is this liquid and what does it taste like?
Lots of adults have been hearing about me having an MRI and are getting pretty excited about the fact that they "know all about them". This has led to me being told all sorts of things about how horribly claustrophobic they are and how unbearably loud they are. I've had a CT scan and I was fine with that, but that was 10 minutes, quiet, and I wasn't all the way in the machine.

What's an MRI really like? Please talk me through it!

As a bonus question, has anyone had painful muscle spasms in the lower back? I get them a few times a day at the moment, but not in a way that it's a totally life-changing thing. I'm on Pred (cutting down) Azathiorine, Omeprozole, Pentasa, and Ad-Cal.
As a Bonus Bonus, has anyone had their lip swell up? Bit weird, it has happened to me twice. The right side of my lower lip swole up madly in december and I assumed it had been some reaction because I had a glass of wine and I never drink. But the left side of my top lip did it the other day and I hadn't eaten or drunk anything similar, and there was no alcohol involved. It's not a horrible and important thing, I'm just curious.

Thanks guys!

 

[robbo87]

Hi hannah, they are really not that bad, I've had a few MRI's and about 10 ct's so I'm a seasoned scannee... haha

The drink that you have is very different to the bowel prep as far as I remember, I've had some scans with it and some without but the main reason for it is to dye your bowel, It is similar to the barium meal I guess, not the nicest tasting stuff but when I had it they put cordial in with it to make it more bearable. They may inject you with some dye aswell but this is just like in the CT scan.

The best way to describe the scanner is to imagine the CT scanner, but long enough to fit your whole body in. It could be a bit claustrophobic but my advice is just lie still and try to keep relaxed, there's no pain involved, its just a case of lying still and breathing and holding your breath to instructions just like in the CT scanner. It does take a lot longer than the CT tho, and it is noisy, but you have headphones which do block the sound out a bit. part of the noise is as something is spinning around the machine and then at points it will become a bit of a loud sort of processing noise (remember dial up modems Dialling up and making funny noises?.. Kind of like that I guess)

It sound's a lot scarier than it is, But I promise you that you will be fine there's certainly no sort of pain of any kind involved and once your in and used to the noises you will feel a lot more settled.

They can be loud but I certainly wouldn't call it unbearable.


Good luck and report back with how you get on!

 

[Angrybird]

Hi Hannah, I have had 3 MRI's and didn't think they were too bad, there is a bit of the machine that is a little narrower than the rest (I closed my eyes for this bit) but then it opens up again. My letter for one of the appts mentioned nothing about drinking anything and they ended up giving me a packet of the same stuff I had had to drink a week earlier for my colonoscopy, lets just say I had to go home afterwards instead of back to work..... The noise didn't bother me either, it sounded a lot like that rubbish techno music that some people actually like!! I hope it goes ok for you, keep us updated.

NB I can get lower back pain at times but have not had a problem with swollen lips.

 

[Sonwithcrohns2]

My 16 yr old son just had one of his small colon. They called it an MRE - he had to have a tube up his nose and positioned using a fluorascope (?)...wasn't very pleased when I heard this as they had said he would actually be drinking something in the letter. The fluoroscope means they were x-raying him the whole time while positioning the tube... about 40 x-rays he reckons... I thought they would avoid this in a 16 yr old I hope the x-rays were low dose

 

[Susan2]

If it is an MRI (I don't know what an MRE is) it does not involve x-rays or any forms of radiation. This technique uses a very powerful magnet and radio waves to produce images of any part of the body.

I just had one of my lower back (nothing to do with my Crohn's) and I have had others previously. I find if I just relax and don't try to block out the sound, but just go with it while concentrating on my breathing, I almost fall asleep. They even asked me if I would like to watch something on the screen that was set above me in the MRI machine.

 

[Sonwithcrohns2]

The positioning of the feeding tube for the MRE (an MRI using feeding tube straight into small bowel and also dye injection) required the x-rays using something called a fluoroscope I believe to get the tube in the right place.

 

[SarahDub]

Hannah, Thank you for asking the same question I was about to ask. I just got my date finally for my MRI and was starting to worry about what was involved but it sounds straight forward now. I hope yours goes ok, i'm having mine on April 6th.