I had my first scan back in 2002 when I had my first symptoms. I had no idea what it was or what it would involve and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous. I remember a friend saying to me to keep my eyes shut, so that you can't see how enclosed the space is, it was the best piece of advice as I know it is incredibly tight and I still do that to this day.
Unfortunately as I am not very active and am not able to move very well, I have put on weight over the years. It has always been something that I am quite sensitive about as I was a trained dancer and I know all about body conditioning but it has all gone out the window as I am unable to do any of it anymore. I wasn't sure how I would feel about going in to a tube to be scanned when I had my first one, but I have actually found that as long as I keep my eyes shut and I take my mind off to somewhere else, I am able to get through it okay.
As with everything, things have changed over the years too. Where I have had my scans they have provided headphones and will play a radio station for you to listen to but I was in a different scanner yesterday so there wasn't any music. You are given ear plugs anyway as the scanner is very loud and they still put headphones on you so that they can communicate with you while you're having your scans. When I had my first scans, over twenty years ago, I used to sing lots of songs in my head. I had been involved in lots of musicals over the years and so I would just sing the lyrics to myself and that would help make the time go by. It's what I did yesterday too 🎶
It goes without saying that I think I am quite strange. I have a body that never wants to work with me and always does strange things and falling asleep while I'm having an MRI scan is definitely a weird one. The scanner is very loud and it's not somewhere you would automatically think of to catch forty winks but I guess I am so used to it now and I imagine myself being somewhere else, I have my eyes closed anyway and I just find myself drifting off, it really does help the time go by quite quickly. True to form, I drifted off yesterday! 😴
The timings of the scans can vary as it depends how many parts of your body they want scans of. I had my brain and spine done yesterday, which is fairly standard and took about forty minutes. They have to move you up and down the tube depending on which body part they are doing. Sometimes they want to inject a contrast dye into your veins. I believe that it is just so that things will show up on the scan more clearly, which is fine, as long as they can access your veins successfully. This is another area where my body and I don't see eye to eye. My veins are not easy to access and because of the painful sensations in my skin, it is why I have a TIVAD (Totally Implantable Venous Access Device) in my chest, but not every hospital have nurses who are able to access it, but that's another story!
You don't get the results of the scans straight away as they have to be looked at by a radiologist. The results will go to my consultant and he will then let me know if there have been any changes since my scan last year.
I've learnt not to expect anything anymore as, when I had scans taken over the first few years, I would feel that there had been changes to my symptoms but the scans wouldn't show anything. It was incredibly frustrating because it made me feel as though I was making it up. Now though the scans have been showing changes and I'm frustrated about that because it confirms my deterioration - I can never win 😳
So that's my MRI done for another year, now I can think about the next appointment which will be my next dose of MS treatment, Ocrevus, which is next week.......where did that time go?!?!
XxXxX 💕
As always, Rosie is sending her love to anyone who needs it xxx 😻
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