saturday, 4 june 2005, i went for my first mri scan. it supposed to be cat scan, but the doctor said that mri was better to see what was needed to be seen, my pituitary gland.
after the wait, the nurse asked me to change into a towel robe, taking off all things metal from my body. then i was ushered into the scan room and asked to lie down on the sliding table. then he clamped my head and asked me to close my eyes and keep still throughout the procedure. for a detailed procedure, please look here.
i did one 10-minutes (that felt like forever) scan, then i was pulled out from the 'cylinder' and was informed that the procedure would be repeated after a contrast material (gandolinium, i supposed) was injected into my vein. so he jabbed the injection into my left arm and left the needle there for a few seconds... and ouch! suddenly i felt a sharp pain that quickly covered my left arm with a burning sensation. i called the nurse and informed him that i felt pain. he looked at the burning arm and said that my vein was so fragile, it broke.
and i panicked! so that contrast material thing was now all over the inside of my left arm???!!!!
that was when i realized another nurse, a lady, was going to inject my right arm with the same material. i actually freaked out and asked her to wait. almost wailed. she said firmly that this has to be done and said that i would be okay, the pain would subside, and cooly jabbed the needle in. this time it was not painful since the pain in the other arm was far more overwhelming.
then she slided the table into the 'cylinder' again and torture began.
in the darkness (of the closed eyes), i heard the thumping of the machine and felt the throbbing pain in my left arm. i prayed for strength over and over. and i regretted my decision to go for mri scan. the throbbing pain and the thumping sound seemed to go on forever.
then everything was done. another nurse nursed my arms, plastered a dot plaster on each arm. i changed back into my clothes and went out. all the time feeling a bit angry over the broken-vein thing, scared of the effect of the material inside my body, and some regrets for going for this mri scan thing.
on the way home, i ponder a lot about my threshold of pain. and that of my ancestors.
can you imagine how they pulled their teeth before anesthetic was invented?
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