I am faced with needing more MRI. The noise and vibrations of the machine are incredibly painful triggering all kinds of spikes all over my head. My pain is so bad I can not hold still and I am very fearful of the next one. The last one I had I did my best but I was crying uncontrollably during and very ill after. Result-waste of time because the image was blurry.
So I have been asking around about how much drugs to take to cope thru another. Can not really get an answer on that. But what a Neurosurgeon told me was we can "sedate you". He said, "that's how we do MRI's in children because kids do not hold still, hospitals always have an anesthesiologist on hand to do just that.
They are called different things like inpatient sedation.
Good Luck to all, I wanted anyone with the same problem to know that it is possible to get an MRI with sedation so we can not feel the pain.
I did not know one could request it. I have spoken to others who fear them for one reason or another so they do not get them but really need one.
I am not claustrophobic at all, and I never had a problem until my TN and ON effected my ears. Now the pain is so bad I can not hold still enough to get a good picture and have been avoiding it. But I need more imaging to figure out where to target the pain. Pain level is cutting into my sleep too much, can not lay on a pillow with out lots of more pain.
I had to request a sedation MRI and now I am getting one. Now I wont have to worry about the picture being too fuzzy to read, wasting my time and money.
Thought it was worth getting the word out to others with MRI issues.
My doctor wanted me to have another MRI and I told the doctor that they hurt because of the sound and vibrations especially my ears but was told "no they don't". Crappy doctors here. I took a tegretol and 2 gabapentin and a soma (left over from car wreck 3 years ago) right before. {I am not recommending anyone to take this much medicine at one time. Do as I say not as I do. Lol, couldn't resist.} Oddly it still hurt but I kept falling asleep so they kept having to do parts over. Good luck and thanks for the info!
I just keep my eyes closed and relax. I find the sounds interesting and try to let them entertain me instead of bother me. I'd definitely ask for sedation if you need it.
Tree, my Dr prescribed me a Valium to help as I do not cope well with MRI being a claustrophobe. I also put myself under self hypnosis, you can learn how to do this all over www land. I swim in a fab bay in the med, in my head. Even so I am always glad to come out and my fingers twitch over the "panic button" until I do.
i had a horrible reaction to the noise. next time my dr required a mri i was sedated. the following time, i had conscious. sedation which i never thought would work… noise did not even bother me . i’d highly recommend it. it sure beats the alternative banging and clicking. you’ll be fine with the sedation.
I am claustrophic. The first 5 seconds I wantedt to quit,but I got my breathing under control. I started naming every Browns football player by position and number (big football fan), then I did last years roster and so on. I kept my closed the whole time. My doctor gave me .5 of xanax but I think it didn' t start working until I was about done. Took it too late. Luckily the MRI showed a small lesion on my trigeminal nerve, in Merkle's Cave...yeah whatever that is. Meeting with surgeon this week. Hope to have that guy removed and become a human being again.
I wish you the best with your surgeon. My next MRI will be of my neck to look at cervical reasons for occipital neuralgia. I had the bad guys removed from my trigeminal nerve five months ago it was a good thing. Now I’m moving forward with the next pain center.
Take it easy, Tree
My surgeon just told me I have to try meds for 3 months before we do MVD. He thinks surgery will be effective but he says no one gets MVD until the try meds. Even if they work perfectly, no way am I taking 15 pills a day when I could be pill and pain free. MVD in 3 months no matter what.