So going on from my sudden hearing loss and a swab not showing any results (no infection) I have to go for a MRI scan on my brain. Has any one had one recently and can tell me what to expect etc. Merci

Take a CD to listen to. They will give you some headphones to reduce the noise made by the machine. You'll probably be in there for 30-45 mins. It can be a bit claustrophobic.

I suffer quite badly from claustrophobia, however I didn't find it too bad!

I think there is something quite reassuring about being in a hospital not actually being stuck.

It is very loud, and makes some strange noises but its pretty straight forward. You lie on a bed and get pushing into a giant plastic polo mint, lie there for 40 minutes and back out.

The only thing I struggled with, is that you are not allowed to move! I'ts kind of like when you get your hair cut as a child and your too scared to scratch your nose, so you try and manipulate your face in the hope that you do not move to much but get rid of the itch!

I'd suffered headaches for some months before I was sent for MRI scans. You are slotted into the tube, head gently fixed in position - it's not good to move, but easy to keep still. Yes, takes somewhere between 30-45 mins. I found it quite relaxing - I can't remember if I dozed off. The noise the scan makes is "hypnotic" - it would make a cool "chill out" track.

Never found out what was causing the headaches - the scan gave me the "all clear." Headache went a few months later - I took a ball in the face at 5-a-side (we didn't play shoulder height rule) - no pain, no headache. Great!

Good luck.

I had the same, sudden hearing loss and an MRI. They'll inject you with ink first. I've had several since and some play music, some don't. Not that bad to be honest.

Good luck by the way!

I loved the sound of the MRI scanner when I had to have a couple of scans.

The injection they give you which makes you feel as though you've wet yourself is genuine witchcraft.

Good luck WMC, let us know how it goes.

ten bellies wrote:Take a CD to listen to. They will give you some headphones to reduce the noise made by the machine. You'll probably be in there for 30-45 mins. It can be a bit claustrophobic.

I think your confusing it with a CT scan. The last thing you will be allowed near an MRI with is headphones.
100s of years ago when I was working in neuro angio suite I had to sit through a half hour safety video of what happens to metal objects near an MRI, the 5lb lump hammer flying through space was spectacular. Funny enough the next day, one of the guys was moving a monitor and just crossed the red line with it. Pinned his hand neatly to the donut, lucky no broken bones but shattered pride. 2 strong guys pulled the monitor off his paws, after suitably embarrassing photos had been taken. It cost £50,000 for someone to check over the scanner for damage, had they hit the emergency stop the bill would have been £250,000.

Anyway, WestMids good luck with the scan and hope they find a nice curable cause for your problems.

Walton wrote:I loved the sound of the MRI scanner when I had to have a couple of scans.

The injection they give you which makes you feel as though you've wet yourself is genuine witchcraft.

I have ct scans on a regular basis and I get injected with that stuff. Not only does it make you feel that you’ve wet yourself you can taste it in the back of your throat!! It’s a bit like Victory V’s

Weird!!

ten bellies wrote:Take a CD to listen to. They will give you some headphones to reduce the noise made by the machine. You'll probably be in there for 30-45 mins. It can be a bit claustrophobic.

Who has a portable CD player these days??

I've had headphones in an MRI numerous times but it's headphones they supply connected to the machine itself. They must be non ferrous such as titanium so not magnetic.

I ended up with a brain tumour but all good now!!

PaintYorkClaretnBlue wrote:I have ct scans on a regular basis and I get injected with that stuff. Not only does it make you feel that you’ve wet yourself you can taste it in the back of your throat!! It’s a bit like Victory V’s

Weird!!

I had the same when i was in hospital last year (7 MRIs and 14 CT scans over 9 months!). I find the dye injection reaction of the 'heat going up your body the freakiest. Its like you are on one of those loading bars on a computer with how it seems to move along at a relatively slow pace.

CrispyClaret wrote:I think your confusing it with a CT scan. The last thing you will be allowed near an MRI with is headphones.
100s of years ago when I was working in neuro angio suite I had to sit through a half hour safety video of what happens to metal objects near an MRI, the 5lb lump hammer flying through space was spectacular. Funny enough the next day, one of the guys was moving a monitor and just crossed the red line with it. Pinned his hand neatly to the donut, lucky no broken bones but shattered pride. 2 strong guys pulled the monitor off his paws, after suitably embarrassing photos had been taken. It cost £50,000 for someone to check over the scanner for damage, had they hit the emergency stop the bill would have been £250,000.

Anyway, WestMids good luck with the scan and hope they find a nice curable cause for your problems.

Fake news!

They supply the headphones.

harpers_perm wrote:I've had headphones in an MRI numerous times but it's headphones they supply connected to the machine itself. They must be non ferrous such as titanium so not magnetic.

I ended up with a brain tumour but all good now!!

Yep I'm thinking it could be that. I'm really quite poorly and experiencing a lot of pain non stop. Hopefully it isn't and it's something else but with there being no sign of infection it's a little worrying.

Thanks for all the advice/experiences. I do suffer from claustrophobia but I think my anxiety of what's actually wrong with me might help combat that

MRI is noisy and as stated above metal is a no, no.

My brother had one 2 weeks ago and isn't the easiest patient and not noted for listening to instructions.

His jeans 'flew up' and stuck to the tube due to the metal contents in his pocket

Edit
My wife bad a scan through a doughnut but mine have all been in a coffin like tube

WestMidsClaret wrote:Yep I'm thinking it could be that. I'm really quite poorly and experiencing a lot of pain non stop. Hopefully it isn't and it's something else but with there being no sign of infection it's a little worrying.

Thanks for all the advice/experiences. I do suffer from claustrophobia but I think my anxiety of what's actually wrong with me might help combat that

It's worrying but the odds are it's nothing sinister. I had no pain at all just deafness and tinnitus.

Every brain MRI I've had has been up from the waist only so it's not that bad and actually quite relaxing!

It's like being led under the front end of a car with your legs out whilst listening to some sh1t German trance from 1993.

I had an MRI scan a few months ago after a stroke. It is somewhat noisy and a bit claustrophobic as has been mentioned above but by far the worst aspect was having to listen to the Steve Wright show on Radio 2 for about 30 minutes through the headphones. Aaargh!

I'm having a lot of pain with the tinnitus well I presume it's the tinnitus, there's, I can only describe, like a whooshing sensation which really hurts. Nothing stops the pain. I've had paracetamol, co-codamol and Ibruprofen (not all at once) and nowt touches it!

Tinnitus won't be causing the pain, it's a symptom of your reduced hearing. I was told by the surgeon that ibruprofen makes tinnitus far worse as it thins the blood but tinnitus alone is very debilitating so you have my sympathy,

The quicker you have the scan the better, I can appreciate it's stressful but I'm sure it will all be ok.

I dont take ibruprofen much to be honest. I was on something for it last year but cant remeber what and even then i dont htink it helped! The scan is in 2 weeks so not too long a wait.

JohnMac wrote:His jeans 'flew up' and stuck to the tube due to the metal contents in his pocket

I think your brother may have been having you on!

I'm sure he was a little too embarrassed to tell you he was naked with his arse showing through a compulsory hospital gown.

MarkGreen wrote:I think your brother may have been having you on!

I'm sure he was a little too embarrassed to tell you he was naked with his arse showing through a compulsory hospital gown.

I said that to him as well but he said they allowed him to keep his jeans on because it was his shoulder they were scanning.

I have always had to change, even standing up for an x-ray on my chest I had to have bare McSnakers

Good luck westmids - They aren't the most pleasant of experiences just boring but it will soon pass. They told me I have some brain damage but that's only because I fell off a bar stool following a clarets mad golf day at the shock of seeing CT buying a pint and cracked my head open and have banged it several times since but am still living to tell the tale.

I went into the MRI scanner with my hospital car park ticket in my pocket. Needless to say it erased the parking information and on leaving the car park they were unable to charge me....excellent!

tybfc wrote:Good luck westmids - They aren't the most pleasant of experiences just boring but it will soon pass. They told me I have some brain damage but that's only because I fell off a bar stool following a clarets mad golf day at the shock of seeing CT buying a pint and cracked my head open and have banged it several times since but am still living to tell the tale.

I remember it well and if it hadn't been so serious I would have awarded you 4.9 for style

PaintYorkClaretnBlue wrote:Who has a portable CD player these days??

They did.

WestMidsClaret wrote:So going on from my sudden hearing loss and a swab not showing any results (no infection) I have to go for a MRI scan on my brain. Has any one had one recently and can tell me what to expect etc. Merci

I got suspected of having a brain tumour/aneurysm/ about two years ago. Sent me for an emergency one the next day after a GP visit. With a neurologist appointment booked literally 2 days after that, it was all pretty urgent and I thought I was on my way out at the tender age of 25. Lasts about 20 minutes from what I can remember, very loud, give you headphones and play crap 90s music all way through. Nurse was fit that ran me through it all though. It's not a bad experience like. Didn't have contrast though, that's meant to be unpleasant.

I had iodine contrast when I had my last CT scan and came out in a rash.

Thanks for sharing you experiences chaps. Does anyone know how long it takes for the results to come through?

Good luck WMC.

Thanks for the thread and good luck, WMC.
My daughter has an MRI shortly and is claustrophobic. I'll send her a link and hope it gives some reassurance.

Thanks chaps, I hope everything goes ok for your daughter piston. Tonight's result has helped take my mind of stuff

Do MRI scans require you to drink Barium sulfate, like you have to with a CT scan?

That stuff is disgusting. Tastes like orange flavoured rubber!

Spijed wrote:Do MRI scans require you to drink Barium sulfate, like you have to with a CT scan?

That stuff is disgusting. Tastes like orange flavoured rubber!

Depends where they are are scanning on your body.

The scan was cancelled due to me not ringing up to confirm! I know it's my fault but I thought you only ring up to cancel. So I've got to wait for another appointment to come through!.

Scan's in half an hour. Wish me luck you beautiful people!!

Good luck from a beautiful person.

I'm sure all will be OK.

Good luck you should be done and dusted now
I got my results the day after

Longside4evr wrote:Good luck you should be done and dusted now
I got my results the day after

Yes all done. It was quite simple really. Was bloody noisy though and that's with headphones, ear plugs and being half deaf ! They reckon i wont get the results back for 5-6 weeks, maybe that's due to being referred by my GP?

tybfc wrote:Good luck westmids - They aren't the most pleasant of experiences just boring but it will soon pass. They told me I have some brain damage but that's only because I fell off a bar stool following a clarets mad golf day at the shock of seeing CT buying a pint and cracked my head open and have banged it several times since but am still living to tell the tale.

Sorry tybfc but I'm not having that. I witnessed it, and it was frightening to see, but I can assure everyone I was not buying a pint.

I can imagine tybfc falling off a bar stool but nowt to do with shock but more to do with bitter!!

WestMidsClaret wrote:I can imagine tybfc falling off a bar stool but nowt to do with shock but more to do with bitter!!

From memory, I think he was standing and just fell backwards. He'd literally just got in from playing the golf and had gone to the bar. He's held in such high esteem I think everyone just ignored it.

ClaretTony wrote:From memory, I think he was standing and just fell backwards. He'd literally just got in from playing the golf and had gone to the bar. He's held in such high esteem I think everyone just ignored it.

Hope the results are good westmids. The scan isn't pleasant.

CT. I was on a bar stool and had paid for a pint that I never got to taste before I toppled over backwards.

But at least me and flixton had beaten two Yorkshiremen,

tybfc wrote:Hope the results are good westmids. The scan isn't pleasant.

CT. I was on a bar stool and had paid for a pint that I never got to taste before I toppled over backwards.

But at least me and flixton had beaten two Yorkshiremen,

If you'd just beaten two Yorkshiremen then that's all that matters

I’ve been on radio silence for a few days so just seeing this. I had exactly the same symptoms but I also heard my heartbeat going on in the background too. The bang was so loud I got up at 3am when it first kicked in as I thought someone was banging on a car outside so got up to look. Nothing there, then I realized what it was and said to myself “oh dear....”

I had my scan on Friday with contrast. I chose Armin van Buuren as my choice of music. They play it from Pandora. Not sure about the results taking so long. I will get mine today

Don't want to scare anyone, but...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... ndia-death

Thanks for the nice bump I'd forgot about this.

Had results back last week and it's glue ear apparently. So being referred to a specialist for an op. Something to do with putting a tube in to drain away the crap. Had a grommet put in when I was young kid so gone back 30 odd years.