This morning I had an MRI. It's not the first time I've had one, but I'm now thinking that my memories of having previous MRIs are a bit fuzzy. Because I certainly don't remember being this scared at the one I had three years ago.
I was in for a total of about 20-30 minutes. In the full body scanner. Luckily, I was only in from top to knees, and I also had the slight relief of being able to lay on my stomach. The first ten minutes were fine - I had some ear defenders on to block out the worst of the noise, and I kept my eyes shut. The technician kept talking to me between scan cycles, letting me know when another one was starting, and checking on me at the halfway point to make sure I was okay to continue. I told her I was, and the scan carried on.
Which was when I opened my eyes and actually looked at the inside of the machine. That was right about the time my claustrophobia started playing tricks with me. Thankfully, my claustrophobia is relatively mild, and only hits me occasionally. Like this morning. I got through the rest of the scan by gritting my teeth, trying to keep my eyes shut, and mentally running through songs from my favourite musicals.
By the time I was out of the machine, I was completely off kilter. I wanted to curl up and lay down and run away all at the same time. I was weirdly tired, had the beginnings of a headache, and was moving very slowly. Apparently those are common issues following an MRI (except for the last, which I think was simply a side effect of how nervous and scared I was still feeling the backlash of). A bit of rest, a glass of squash, and some painkillers helped get me back to normal.
I really, really hope I never have to do that again. But if for some awful reason I do, at least I'll know to keep my damn eyes shut.
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