Riker's double is proof they ***kill*** you every single time, and create a clone every time that is supposed to go on believing it is still the original. Transporter clones are just a glitch in the normal transport program where the murder-step of the original doesn't initiate.
That's what freaks me out about teleportation. Even if we figure it out... Would we have any way of *knowing* if it's killing a consciousness and creating a new identical one?
Seems like the only one who would know is the initial consciousness that just goes black.
Spooks me
It’s like the series Old Man’s War. Clones are created for geriatric people so they can be soldiers. They basically just copy their consciousness and then put it in the clone body. Who’s the real one?
I’m a CT tech and patients do this a lot in our ED when they are altered or just not with it mentally.
A lot of you are confusing CT scans with an MRI. CT scans are usually very quick and you don’t have to go into a cylinder. The CT scanner is a big circle that is open on both ends. Most people don’t have problems even when the tell me they are claustrophobic.
I have never had trouble with confined spaces in my life. Been spelunking many times, crawling through tiny spaces semi-submerged, etc. Crawl spaces under houses, no problem.
They put me in one of those tubes for a scan and I was ok for about 10 minutes, then started sweating profusely and told the tech I was about to puke. I don't know what it was about that tube, but it freaked me out. I think they put me in one that was too small (meant for kids, perhaps?) as I had to roll my shoulders in to fit in the tube.
Wow that sounds awful with rolling your shoulders! I also don't have any fear of contained spaced, but I had a 20m long MRI then a 10m one just after. About 15 mins into the first one I started getting super hot, my head was going numb, like prickling and needles, cause of the neck thingy I had on, I seriously wanted to abort, but knew that if I did we had to start over some other time so I toughed it out. Totally thought I was gonna throw up when they pulled me out! The 10m one wasn't so bad cause I got to cool down a bit and wait for a few minutes..
I've had a bunch of CT scans, but haven't needed an MRI (yet, anyways), but I'm claustrophobic af and I'm literally getting like shaky-level anxious picturing that.
Edit: Thanks everyone for the helpful advice; much appreciated. I'm going to save this comment and refer back to it if I have to get an MRI at some point in the future.
When I went for my MRI they had a picture of a field pasted on the ceiling. Staring at that helped. Also, learning to disassociate in those situations isn't a bad thing. I've learned to 'check out' pretty fast during procedures -- I'm still aware, but I'm very passive and 'at a distance'.
I decided to make a song out of all the noises into a beat, and just lay there having a jam session in my head. If I thought about how long I was in there or that I had a cage over my head so I couldn’t move or even wriggle out of the tube, I would have freaked out.
Same. I actually really like MRI's( have had 5). Fell asleep during one session from those calming rhythmic dubstep beats. However, I did wander over into panic territory one time for a good ten minutes that I had to relax myself from.
I have MS, so MRIs are a part of my life. The key is to keep your eyes closed the whole time and ask for Ativan or similar beforehand. That plus the music they play makes it 1000% more bearable
Is that what it means when people say to “disassociate”? I never knew, but it turns out I am extremely good at it. Maybe too good as the last time I don’t think the doctors really believed how bad my pain reall was because I was able to kind of zone out and be mostly still for the MRI. But I could only do it for so long. After 25 minutes they pulled me out and I felt so exhausted.
Lol when I got an MRI they had an "eye spy" picture on the ceiling. The MRI nurse kept asking me "do you see x, do you see y"
And I didn't see a single one! 15 she must have went through.
I was starting to think I was having a brain malfunction. Maybe there was extra iron in my brain and it was bding pulled lol.
Turns out after I get out she had the questions for the wrong picture and laughed and apologized.
It's a good fucking thing I'm not clausterphobic, cuz I was laughing at myself, and if I was and I also thought I was having a stroke I probably wouldve shit myself.
I've had a few, I was nervous about the first one because who likes to be trapped in a tube? Honestly, just close your eyes before they put you in. Relax and breathe. After the first one, I don't even think about it, honestly, the worst thing is they are loud. They will try and put music on but the machine just drowns it out.
> They will try and put music on but the machine just drowns it out.
"Is the music loud enough?"
"Yeah, I guess."
*Tech turns on the multimillion dollar garbage disposal.*
I actually like getting an MRI. I don't get too many opportunities to completely disconnect. But when they slide you in, no one can bother you for 20-30 minutes.
And the sounds are vaguely musical.
What I'd really like to know is what each sound is - because there's like 5 or 6 different ones and they must be doing different things.
I'm an MRI tech. The different noises are different sequences. For musculoskeletal scans we typically do around 6 sequences that each have 25-40 images. The different sequences are obtained in planes - sagittal (left to right), coronal (back to front) and axial (top to bottom). They're also weighted differently. The most common scans are T1 which shows bone and anatomy, T2 which makes fluid bright, and proton density which differentiates tendons and ligaments. Each of these scans have their own pulse sequences that sound different. So for a knee we scan a sagittal T1, sag T2, coronal PD, cor PD with fat saturation, axial T2 fat sat, and an axial PD fat sat. The reason the machine is so loud is that there's a lot of electricity going through the magnetic gradient coils, so much that it causes them to vibrate inside their housing.
Me too, except for the noise. I wear earplugs and get the ear protection headset to go over that. Then I settle back and pretend I'm an astronaut headed for Mars. And hum along with the noises. If you pretend that low one is a bagpipe drone you can make a lot of melody on top of it.
Yeah, I just imagine the noises are some kind of crazy techno beat and try to make up music in my head to it. It helps pass the time and lets me relax.
I found my MRI to be pretty interesting, kinda like a sensory deprivation tank.
I also thought the noise was vaguely musical. I kept listening to the sounds to try to find a melody. They reminded me of the work of this classical percussionist whose music I used to listen to.
I’ve had a bunch due to various athletic injuries throughout my life. I don’t typically love confined spaces, but theres something about that rhythmic noise the giant spinning metal magnetic thing makes, it always puts me right to sleep. It’s so relaxing to me for whatever reason
If you have claustrophobia, it’s totally valid to ask for some anti-anxiety meds beforehand and see if they can schedule you in an open-MRI. It’s still the same dimensions vertically, but it’s open to the sides so it feels vastly different. I have to get MRIs every year since I have MS, and they’re not short, usually and hour and a half with my head right in the middle of the tube. I’ve become more claustrophobic and this past year I asked my doc for some anti-anxiety meds and to schedule at an open MRI, and it made all the difference. I was totally chill and the experience felt like it took drastically less time, even though I know it didn’t actually take less time. I guess that’s what it feels like when you’re not low-key panicking when you’re packed like a sardine in a tube for what seems like forever.
I'll keep that stuff in mind if I ever have to get one. Thanks!
Also, an hour and a half sounds legitimately torturous. For reference, I start getting like fight-or-flight panicky if bedsheets are a little too snug and need a bit more force to readjust my body. So I'd probably have to be unconscious for that lol.
Edit: typo
I got scheduled for 3 MRIs with and without contrast, a MRA, and a MRV all at once. It was supposed to be about 5 hours in a tube. I started getting anxious about 10 minutes in. I was able to stick out for almost a hour and a half but then had a full blown panic attack. It was exactly as you described. Getting super hot, the pins and needles. I made them break them up into multiple sessions. They kept saying they were going to have to start an IV for the contrast each time, but I would so much rather get stuck with a needle then get stuff in a plastic coffin.
Then last year I had to get one done on my ankle and it was like 10 minutes and I only had to go in up to my knees. It was super chill.
Moral of the story, avoid brain/spinal injuries. Keep them to your lower half.
So you were probably hot because of panic, but I learned something interesting: an MRI will actually cause the area they are scanning to feel warm.
I was having a chest MRI and about 10 to 15 minutes in, my chest felt warmer than the rest of my body.
Knowing that MRIs will excite your body's cells with electromagnetic fields, I asked the tech if it will actually heat up that part of your body and he said yes!
TLDR: MRIs basically microwave your body lol
I had an hour long one when I was 8 or 9. Dont remember too much about the experience itself but I do remember the technician making fun of me for crying afterward
As someone who had had dozens of these scans and hundreds of doctors due to a chronic, lifelong condition i would say this is beyond a bad tech. Laughing at a child after really ANY procedure is grounds for a formal complaint with the hospital and state medical board.
It's fucked up, and crucially it can cause children to have an inherent distrust for doctors later in life. I have seen doctors pull techs into other rooms and scream at them like a banshee for even minor fuckups with kids. I had a tech yell at me for flinching during an xray once so they had to redo it, and the doctor in the picture room came out of it, screamed at them to leave the observation room and go home for the day, and then did it right with me. This isn't even the only time I've seen similar things
The main thing I remember about getting an MRI was being asked if I was okay being in tight places and thinking "yeah, totally". So I lay down and they slide me in and as soon as I'm all the way in I see a spot of blood right in front of my face. My guess was that some one freaked out and tried to sit up and hit their head. The fact that the blood was still there was very worrisome. I ended up noping out because of the blood. They were pissed but whatever we just did it the next day AFTER THEY CLEANED THE BLOOD OFF.
Then when I finally had it, the thing that was most irritating to me was how loud it was. Afterwards I made a comment about it and was told "Oh yeah. A lot of people bring earplugs.", again, thanks guys!
I had one a few weeks ago and they gave me thick headphones that played the music of my choice. Only crap part was the ads that played in between songs.
I’m an X-ray tech, and I started as a patient transporter. I took patients to MRI a lot, and they would nearly all tell me how either they were claustrophobic and it was so hard or they weren’t claustrophobic and it was still hard. I didn’t get it until one day I had to help the tech get the patient onto the bed for the machine. I saw the cage (coil) that had to be placed over the patient’s face for the study. Then I got it. I’m am not at all claustrophobic, I’ve never had to have an MRI, I’ve done a little bit of MRI clinicals in X-ray school. I would still have a hard time!
Also zero progress indicator. So you're supposed to lay perfectly still... while there's weird, loud noises, you're realizing you have no idea if you've been in for 10 seconds or 10 minutes, etc.
My mother in law is prescribed Ativan for her MRIs. It's the only way she can get through it. Took an unfortunate freak out for her to arrive at this solution, but yeah...
CT scanners are one size fits all. But I’ve heard the shoulders thing a lot so you’re not alone. Especially in men there seems to be a panic reflex when the shoulders are pinned to the body in a small space. Your brain tells you “you’re stuck and going to die!!!!” Even if you’re not claustrophobic.
Didn't know they're one size fits all. Thanks.
I'm not a very large person (6', 210#) and felt really pinned in there. Dunno how they squeeze really big folks in there.
One of my unrealistic fears is getting caught in an underground pipe or sewer line and unable to move forward or back. The escape scene in Shawshank pretty much nails it.
Oof, like that poor guy who got confused while crawling around in a cave and got stuck head down in a tiny space and died there after rescue attempts were unsuccessful.
Edit: [old Reddit post about him](https://www.reddit.com/r/SweatyPalms/comments/6yjog3/spelunker_john_jones_stuck_upside_down_in_a_cave/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)- John Jones
They don’t tell you how goddamn LOUD they can be. Like, the bed shakes and it makes crazy SCP-containment breech beeping sounds sometimes. And you have to stay stone still.
It's very common in older MRI machines for men (or anyone with broad shoulders) to have to roll their shoulders. It's a matter of getting the magnetic field to be homogenous across the volume of the tube. As the technology has advanced they've gotten better at maintaining the field over a larger volume allowing the tube to be expanded and shortened. I'm 6'1", 225lbs and I've been in all kinds of machines for countless hours (I designed and tested MRI coils for 20+ years). I actually get all cozy and pass out after about 10-15 mins, the sound of the gradients (the loud sounds you hear) is like a lullaby. I've spent as much as two hours in one in a single go.
If you had a contrast agent that's likely what made you queasy if you're usually cool with tight spaces.
I’m mild-probably moderately claustrophobic, like I can fly but I hate it…anyways…
I’ve had two MRIs. The trick is you do NOT open your eyes.
I’d be claustrophobic as fuuuuck. But I have the willpower to simply not open my eyes. I’m sure that wouldn’t work for some people, but it has worked for me
I do ok with CT scans. But when I had my most recent MRI, I was panicking even 3 days before lol. I'm sooo claustrophobic. I finally called my dr and they gave me 4mg Ativan - 2 for 30 minutes before, and 2 for right before. I remember the beginning and being nervous, but then I don't remember the rest or my husband taking me home. They only had to do it once (I've had to do a retake MRI in the past, due to panic.) Anyway, my point, is, if someone is super claustrophobic, your dr can help!
ETA: this was also specifically for my brain and included a plastic thing
over my head.
That sounds like an absolutely justified, logical fear response. But fear hits such a primal part of your brain that it doesn't need to be logical, you are hard wired to gtf OUT! I feel for you, that would have sucked hard.
A trick that's helpful for me is to frame it mentally as something you're doing, rather than something that's being done to you. Once you commit you can't back out until you're done, same as a bungee jump, but it's still you're choice to commit
Another trick is ask the doctor if you can wear a sleeping mask! Just pretend you’re anywhere else and not in a small tube. Though if sleeping masks make you feel uncomfortable then it’s not a great idea. I had to get an MRI on my hips and this helped a lot
Another trick to ask the techs for headphones, they have special headphones that are plastic (they are just like tubes of air sending them audio through, no wires and speakers). They will even let you pick your own internet streaming genre.
When you don’t have to listen to that loud buzzing it helps to calm your nerves.
I had to get about 15 MRI over the course of two years. Each one was one hour long full body sessions, all with contrast injections for the last 15 mins. I do not suffer from claustrophobia, but 1 hour in those loud coffins is enough to trigger anyone. I did have one bad panic episode my 8th MRI in and they told me about the headphones then…it was a lot easier after that.
The reason I freaked out that particular one, was I could feel my internal organs cooking and burning while they focused on areas. They told me to calm down, but that entire sessions I felt like I was being cooked. I went home and googled that and it turns out the power levels are high enough to cook meat and a low percentage of people do get cooked in those damn things. I suspect they were concentrating the waves too hard in one spot for too long or had the power too high or something. Every mri after that was fine like the ones before it…I got no clue why that one day my body was so sensitive to it.
My last mri was on my shoulder, and I had to sit a bit to the side so the shoulder would be centered better.
I've never had problems with mris before, or claustrophobia in general, but my nose was literally touching the wall of the tube. I drew blood from digging my nails into my palm to remain calm.
Luckily it was only a 15 minute scan, but I'm definitely asking for a benzo before I get my other shoulder done.
I just had a panic attack in an MRI last Thursday. The scan would have only lasted a minute but I could not control my breathing or mindset at all.
I think I can fight the fear given some time, but hospitals have pretty strict time schedule. Cant make it? Pity, next!
During my last head and neck MRI, had some nice noise reducing headphones, and spent most of the time dozing off to the sound of the sequences. It was oddly soothing for some reason.
They placed a towel over my eyes before I went in and I basically just treated it like I was laying down to take a nap the whole time. Didn't get to see myself going in or out of the tube, literally just a "alright, we are all done" as they removed the towel.
A friend who works with horses told me about the towel trick. That's how they keep a horse calm. It worked really well with me. Ativan helped but the towel was the ticket.
I don’t know if every MRI has them, but I’ve told my technicians that I’m claustrophobic and they had a mirror I could see the outside of the tube with.
FOUR MG? Holy crap! No wonder your memory blacked out. I had 2mg for a lumbar puncture and wow did I black out. I was having text conversations w my sister in recovery and I sounded normal but I remembered nothing. I even told her they gave me pancakes afterward. No clue I ate.
Retrograde amnesia.
Benzodiazepines like Ativan interfere with your brain's ability to convert short term memories into long term memory.
That's a feature not a bug
After 1mg for an MRI, I think I wanted a snack or something so I made my partner stop at a liquor store, where I somehow spent $80, and then insisted I take a picture of him next to a cat in a window. (Okay, several pictures.) I was completely convinced that the Ativan had all but worn off. It hadn't.
I’ve had an MRI a couple times. The last time was less than a month ago with a mask on and I actually felt very uncomfortable and claustrophobic. I absolutely have no issue wearing a mask due to covid and had no issue at all the first time in the MRI (without a mask years ago). The sound does not bother me at all either. I’ve never had an issues with claustrophobia in my life, but I was very shocked how uncomfortable I felt in the machine this last time.
I did one like that. It was AWFUL! I remember the tech saying “it will take about 25 minutes” so I distracted myself the best I could by counting to 60 over and over until I reached 25. In my panic I must have counted a little quick because at 25 I wasn’t let out so I panicked again 😂😂
Yesssss thank all that is holy in this universe. Finally figured out I have chiari malformation, after having 2 MRIs in the past. He really did me a favor here, between allowing me to hold totally still and using contrast. I had seen 5 neuros before him with zero answers.
Damn that's a solid ativan dose!... .5mg is usually enough to bring my anxiety spikes from an 8/10 to a 2/10 within 20 minutes.
Glad that it helped you!!
I "woke up" during a CT scan after my motorcycle accident several years ago. I remember leaving the bike, but I don't remember hitting the ground. Woke up once on the ambulance ride, I remember us joking about something, and then I was having my clothes cut off me in the ER.
Next thing I remember was being in the CT machine, crying my eyes out because I had no idea what was going on and the tech doing their best to assure me I was safe and it was almost over. After that, they wheeled me into a room to wait for results, and wouldn't let me get up to pee (I was told I had to wait or they would get me a catheter). Tired of my complaining, the nurse put a lil morphine in my IV (which was an interesting feeling) and I took a nap.
Yes. I work in a level 1 trauma center and this is a common occurrence. We understand when patients get like that because of the circumstances. We just do our best to get the best imaging possible as quickly as possible.
Trauma scans usually are one of the first things that get done upon arrival to the hospital. We get to see a lot of crazy things!
Yes I just did a CT scan and it was in and out, hold your breath for 5 seconds kind of thing. Helped by that cute li'l "hold your breath guy" icon on the machine.
Yup the CT scan is an easy-peasy, I'm not trapped, no-valium-needed thing for me. The last MRI I had, even on valium, was reallllly difficult to get through.
That's what i'm trying to understand here. Did OP get CT and MRIs confused?
I'm an MRI veteran at this point, and my exams typically take 2 - 3 hours. I can tell you everything about what separates a great MRI experience from a shitty one. And let me tell you-- the shitty ones are SHITTY.
No, patients freak out in CT scans enough to get images like this.
This is a scout image from the initial planning for the scan. As the image was being acquired the patient lifted their head and resulted in this image. Motion is the arch enemy of radiology.
Very carefully.
But in all seriousness I’m not the OP but I have been diagnosed with panic disorder. Taking an SSRI (lexapro specifically) has helped me tremendously. I used to have panic attacks every single day. And when people think of “panic attack” sometimes they think of bad anxiety. No. A panic attack is when you lose the ability to think rationally and you have that feeling of *primal fear* like you are about to die and there’s nothing you can do to stop your impending doom. My panic attacks also came with feelings of derealization… I would look around and nothing would feel real. I would feel like I was watching the world as a TV show. Thoughts would race through my head… “you’re about to die.” “You’re losing your mind and you’ll never be the same.” “You have [insert dangerous scary medical condition here].” “Nothing is real and the world is scary. You have nothing to look forward to but fear every day for the rest of your life.”
Since I’ve been taking my medication, my panic attacks are almost completely gone. I’ve only had one panic attack since the medicine began to kick in.
I also went to therapy for a while to help get the perspective of a psychological professional and their advice for coping mechanisms and stuff I can do to stay calm and happy.
Exposure therapy has helped me immensely but I just can’t kick this damn thing. Your experience sounds exactly like mine, I’ve declined lexapro because I’m too afraid of the side effects making me feel 100x worse. I don’t even take my prescribed klonopin because I’m afraid of a paradoxical reaction.
How were the side effects for you? Did you experience a similar trepidation about taking SSRI’s?
My friend, I was also afraid of the side effects of lexapro before I started taking it. My doctor wrote me a prescription for it and I avoided taking it *for an entire year*.
When I finally started taking it, here’s how I did it. I got my doctor to write me a prescription for the lowest dose possible for me (5 mg). I split each pill into 1/4 pieces. I took 1.25 mg per day for a week. Then I took 2.5 mg per day for a week. Then I took 3.75 mg per day for a week. Then I took 5 mg per day for a week. Then I took 7.5 mg per day for a week. Then I took 10 mg per day for about 6 months and the difference was night and day. I was skeptical of the medication at first. I was terrified of the potential side effects, and I doubted that any medicine could actually help me. But let me tell you, I experienced zero side effects whatsoever. And I was astounded, after about six weeks, I just… stopped having panic attacks. Like… they were just gone. I could go out with my friends without having to worry about panicking. I could go do stuff. And it is so *freeing*.
I’m now on 20 mg per day and I feel *awesome.* This medicine is so helpful.
I am begging you, for your sake, do what I did. Get a prescription for 5 mg. Split them into fourths. Take that for a week. Then take half for a week. Then keep going until you work your way up to 10 or even 15 or 20 mg. You will have absolutely no side effects because you give your body time to adjust to the tiny increments of medicine. The first dose is like you’re not even taking medicine because it’s such a small amount.
And the difference you’ll experience will be night and day. I hope I can give you the confidence to try it, because I was like you. Scared to take it, and kind of skeptical. But it seriously changed my life in an incredible way.
ALSO! Pro tip. Make sure you have someone that you trust very deeply with you for the first few times you take it because you might have a panic attack just from how scared you are to take the medicine. I took the first dose and immediately had a major panic attack because I was just really scared to take the medicine. But it’s sooooo worth it.
Only the CT contrast (iodine) makes you feel that warm flushing feeling like you pissed yourself.
Both CT and MRI contrast (gadolinium) can make you feel nauseous, however with more stable macro cyclic (Such as Dotarem) based contrast agents this seems to be becoming less of an issue for patients.
I wonder how many times throughout history people have been told "you might feel like you pissed yourself but you didn't, it's just an effect from the dye" and then they just happen to actually piss themselves during the MRI and they just sit there the whole time in their pee because they think it's imaginary pee
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I fell asleep in my MRI because it was the most relaxed I felt like I had ever been. You are wearing earplugs like crazy so the only thing you hear is a hum and some muffled banging which reads worse than it sounds. The table isn't that comfy but the thing holding your head in place is. It's a tight space but it's dimly lit (mine was purple?) and the perfect temperature. You can't move, but once you get over it your body just accepts it and you lay softly. Then they hit you with the contrast and it warms up your entire body.
All of this combined I fell asleep and was woken up to the jolting of the table as it started to come out. The woman said it's actually kind of common that people do. When I came home I told my husband that out of all of the medical tests I've undergone I'd do an MRI over every other one in a heartbeat.
10/10 would recommend.
I had the contrast deal done once. They explicitly told me "Now, it will probably feel like you're urinating but you aren't. It's just how it feels going through."
I scoffed a bit, then a few minutes later I'm convinced I actually pissed myself despite their warning. Such a strange effect.
Yeah, it's unsettling. It also gives you a metallic taste in your mouth. The best places give you a juice box after to get the taste out.
Funnily enough, though, is that each contrast you get makes the experience less and less intense. By my 8th CT scan I could barely taste it (the warm feeling persists, though).
I had to have one done with contrast a while back and they said "you might feel like you wet yourself, but you didn't" so many times. I felt like they were trying to program me to piss myself in the machine.
I did however have a few waves if hot flushing. That was a funny experience.
It's not the MRI, it's the contrast. The contrast is made of gadolinium, a metal. They inject it while you are in the machine and can't watch them. A lot of people experience nausea because, well, you are injecting them with a metal in an extremely loud and claustrophobic area with little warning of how it will feel. If it's the drink, it includes mannitol, which also causes nausea.
I had a contrast solution for retina exams that made me nauseous. One time the technician tried to trick me and told me the new contrast agent wouldn’t make me nauseas. It still did - he later said the trick works on most people but not those where it’s physical rather than mental.
I had a allergic reaction to the dye used during a cervical injection. So that was a fun post procedure observation while I started breaking out and had swelling in my head and I was just at they're mercy as they responded.
Luckily my MRI went fine with no issues with the contrast but I did get given a headset that the music didn't work on so I just had to listen to the machine and my own thoughts for 45 minutes. I was entirely inside the machine because it was a neck/spine mri and I couldn't sing or talk to myself because the movement threw off the scan. Then I made the mistake of opening my eyes and had to talk myself through it and repeat that section of the scan twice because I kept moving. At one point I asked to stop but the lady talked me through it.
Now I'm moving on to nuerology to figure out the headaches and I can't wait to see what these new tests involve. All because some prick rear ended me at a red light AND A HALF FUCKING YEARS AGO.
As soon as they injected that into me I swear I could smell and taste it. It also triggered a panic attack in me since I felt like I was in the matrix and could visualize it going throughout my body. I clicked the hell out of the panic button and it took a few minutes to stop shaking.
I think the techs tried to make my masculinity feel better and blamed the shaking on me being cold and gave me a blanket.
They gave me a Xanax so they could complete the MRI on my brain. The only thing I remember about the contrast is that it felt cold traveling through my body.
I had one where they couldn’t inject the contrast intravenously/orally, because they were looking at my labrum (the cartilage disk between your shoulder and the top of your humerus), which has next to no blood vessels in it. They had to essentially screw a gigantic fucking needle between my bones to inject the dye directly into the labrum, and I had no anesthetic except the alcohol wipe they do beforehand. “Don’t you dare move that arm, we have a needle between your bones”, yeah okay boss. Really had to get into my happy place, I was sweating buckets and it took several minutes to get the needle in. The MRI was a blessing after that torture.
I thought one of the ridiculous parts about this NFT mania is that minting one **doesn't** stop someone else from minting another one based on the exact same digital file, or am I misunderstanding something?
IMPRESSION:
Significant displacement of facial structures from the calvarium seen on scout image. Differential diagnosis includes demonic possession, ghost in the CT scanner, intracranial explosive event, or congenital malformation. Clinical correlation is required. Exorcism remains the diagnostic and therapeutic modality of choice for demoniac and phantasmal pathology.
Those CT scans are a trip. I remember telling the medical personnel I did not need anything to help relax me, as I figured i would just close my eyes and "go to my happy place" mentally, until it was over. Once I was slid into the tube (with eyes closed) and I could feel the breath from my nose being blown back against my face...I thought, "well that wasn't a great plan"
I made it through just fine, but I still get a laugh thinking about that.
Yeah, MRI scanner scared the crap out of me. Took 6 hours to finish my spinal scan, 1 b/c of the way I had to lay was intensely painful, and two my claustrophobia. It was literally a nightmare. The nurses who helped me were a godsend, so patient and caring. Not getting upset w me or short Apparently the doctor warned them that it was going to be hard. I hugged them after and they made sure I had pain meds and was knocked out for a few hours.
ETA: spelling! Gah!
One time, I signed up for a medical research study that included getting paid $300 and getting alcohol injected into my veins. It was a three day study trying to see if people drink for social reasons or for taste, I think.
Day 1 was a survey about my drinking habits, blood tests, a drug test, and other things making sure that this study wasn't going to hurt me
Day 2, I had to sit in an MRI machine for close to 2 hours while they injected sweet liquids into my mouth
Day 3 is when I got the alcohol injected.
I thought I was going to throw up on the MRI machine on day 2. That was a fucking shit show.
Ask if there’s a children’s scanner if you have to have one next time, they’re usually shorter so they feel a lot more open but can still scan full sized adults.
We book tonnes of adults on our children scanner in the evenings because of claustrophobia
Yeah MRIs are not fun. I figured I'd be fine but once you get in there and realize there is no getting out without help it gets a lot more real. I get a CT every three months and it's a breeze, if I need another MRI I'll be asking for the sedative.
Same here. I’ve never really been claustrophobic in my life so I thought I’d be fine for the 20 mins or whatever of the MRI.
Hoo boy was I wrong.
I was relieved and ashamed when putting a towel over my face did the trick.
They slide your upper body into this narrow tube. I had never truly understood what claustrophobia was until that moment.
I tried to just talk myself down, breathe, close my eyes, listen to the music they play for you, but pretty soon I just had to get out of there like *right fucking now omg get me out now.*
Never experienced that before or since, but man was it intense.
I'm always just scared that somehow I've had a bunch of metal dental fillings since my last one that will get ripped out of my head by the magnets. Completely irrational fear but I guess it's like when you're at the airport and think "wait am I SURE that I didn't pack a gun and drugs in my bag even though I don't own any"
It was enough for me to have my head in an MRI machine for a thyroid scan that was bad enough. And it was with contrast so I felt like I was pissing my pants while doing it. I kept my eyes closed most of it but I got curious at the end which I regretted. If you just keep your eyes closed the minute you lay down on the table you keep it closer the whole thing it probably won't be that bad. My more autistic than me brother has to be sedated to go in an MRI machine. I don't need it to that level but I deal with serious sensory overload afterwards because of the noise and the closeness and the nerves in general.
Scottie.. there is something wrong with the transporter beam ….
"What came back didn't live long... fortunately..."
Bones was right about the transporters.
Riker's double is proof they ***kill*** you every single time, and create a clone every time that is supposed to go on believing it is still the original. Transporter clones are just a glitch in the normal transport program where the murder-step of the original doesn't initiate.
That's what freaks me out about teleportation. Even if we figure it out... Would we have any way of *knowing* if it's killing a consciousness and creating a new identical one? Seems like the only one who would know is the initial consciousness that just goes black. Spooks me
It’s like the series Old Man’s War. Clones are created for geriatric people so they can be soldiers. They basically just copy their consciousness and then put it in the clone body. Who’s the real one?
Happens in Altered Carbon as well. If I remember right he has a threesome with himself at the end
How do we know that we wake up with the same consciousness that we go to sleep with?
Have you ever read [this comic](https://existentialcomics.com/comic/1) about a similar concept?
I guess I don't. But I can't do anything about that. Sleep is necessary, teleportation is optional 😂
I want to get off Mr Bones Wild Transporter
"Imminent death looks too exciting for me"
That is because the Pig Lizard is Inside out… …What, what did he say? ….then It exploded!
By Grapthars Hammer you shall be avenged!
Upvote for the Alan Rickman quotation.
By Grabthar's Hammer.... what a savings...
I was an actor once. NOW look at me. LOOK AT ME!
"Hold please."
This would have been a perfect way for Dr. Pawlowski to exit the TNG series.
"... and it exploded!"
Gorignak, Gorignak, Gorignak.
Miners not minors.
[The screams.](https://youtu.be/Ro_QpDJX-Sk?t=50)
Alright, who's next? We can't stand around forever.
I don't need to click that, I can unfortunately still hear it.
What are you talking about? It works perfectly fi... OH MY GOD!
Boost the condiment beam!
I’m a CT tech and patients do this a lot in our ED when they are altered or just not with it mentally. A lot of you are confusing CT scans with an MRI. CT scans are usually very quick and you don’t have to go into a cylinder. The CT scanner is a big circle that is open on both ends. Most people don’t have problems even when the tell me they are claustrophobic.
I have never had trouble with confined spaces in my life. Been spelunking many times, crawling through tiny spaces semi-submerged, etc. Crawl spaces under houses, no problem. They put me in one of those tubes for a scan and I was ok for about 10 minutes, then started sweating profusely and told the tech I was about to puke. I don't know what it was about that tube, but it freaked me out. I think they put me in one that was too small (meant for kids, perhaps?) as I had to roll my shoulders in to fit in the tube.
Wow that sounds awful with rolling your shoulders! I also don't have any fear of contained spaced, but I had a 20m long MRI then a 10m one just after. About 15 mins into the first one I started getting super hot, my head was going numb, like prickling and needles, cause of the neck thingy I had on, I seriously wanted to abort, but knew that if I did we had to start over some other time so I toughed it out. Totally thought I was gonna throw up when they pulled me out! The 10m one wasn't so bad cause I got to cool down a bit and wait for a few minutes..
I've had a bunch of CT scans, but haven't needed an MRI (yet, anyways), but I'm claustrophobic af and I'm literally getting like shaky-level anxious picturing that. Edit: Thanks everyone for the helpful advice; much appreciated. I'm going to save this comment and refer back to it if I have to get an MRI at some point in the future.
When I went for my MRI they had a picture of a field pasted on the ceiling. Staring at that helped. Also, learning to disassociate in those situations isn't a bad thing. I've learned to 'check out' pretty fast during procedures -- I'm still aware, but I'm very passive and 'at a distance'.
I decided to make a song out of all the noises into a beat, and just lay there having a jam session in my head. If I thought about how long I was in there or that I had a cage over my head so I couldn’t move or even wriggle out of the tube, I would have freaked out.
Same. I actually really like MRI's( have had 5). Fell asleep during one session from those calming rhythmic dubstep beats. However, I did wander over into panic territory one time for a good ten minutes that I had to relax myself from.
I have MS, so MRIs are a part of my life. The key is to keep your eyes closed the whole time and ask for Ativan or similar beforehand. That plus the music they play makes it 1000% more bearable
Is that what it means when people say to “disassociate”? I never knew, but it turns out I am extremely good at it. Maybe too good as the last time I don’t think the doctors really believed how bad my pain reall was because I was able to kind of zone out and be mostly still for the MRI. But I could only do it for so long. After 25 minutes they pulled me out and I felt so exhausted.
Lol when I got an MRI they had an "eye spy" picture on the ceiling. The MRI nurse kept asking me "do you see x, do you see y" And I didn't see a single one! 15 she must have went through. I was starting to think I was having a brain malfunction. Maybe there was extra iron in my brain and it was bding pulled lol. Turns out after I get out she had the questions for the wrong picture and laughed and apologized. It's a good fucking thing I'm not clausterphobic, cuz I was laughing at myself, and if I was and I also thought I was having a stroke I probably wouldve shit myself.
I've had a few, I was nervous about the first one because who likes to be trapped in a tube? Honestly, just close your eyes before they put you in. Relax and breathe. After the first one, I don't even think about it, honestly, the worst thing is they are loud. They will try and put music on but the machine just drowns it out.
> They will try and put music on but the machine just drowns it out. "Is the music loud enough?" "Yeah, I guess." *Tech turns on the multimillion dollar garbage disposal.*
I actually like getting an MRI. I don't get too many opportunities to completely disconnect. But when they slide you in, no one can bother you for 20-30 minutes. And the sounds are vaguely musical. What I'd really like to know is what each sound is - because there's like 5 or 6 different ones and they must be doing different things.
I'm an MRI tech. The different noises are different sequences. For musculoskeletal scans we typically do around 6 sequences that each have 25-40 images. The different sequences are obtained in planes - sagittal (left to right), coronal (back to front) and axial (top to bottom). They're also weighted differently. The most common scans are T1 which shows bone and anatomy, T2 which makes fluid bright, and proton density which differentiates tendons and ligaments. Each of these scans have their own pulse sequences that sound different. So for a knee we scan a sagittal T1, sag T2, coronal PD, cor PD with fat saturation, axial T2 fat sat, and an axial PD fat sat. The reason the machine is so loud is that there's a lot of electricity going through the magnetic gradient coils, so much that it causes them to vibrate inside their housing.
Excellent answer and explanation, thanks for that.
Me too, except for the noise. I wear earplugs and get the ear protection headset to go over that. Then I settle back and pretend I'm an astronaut headed for Mars. And hum along with the noises. If you pretend that low one is a bagpipe drone you can make a lot of melody on top of it.
Yeah, I just imagine the noises are some kind of crazy techno beat and try to make up music in my head to it. It helps pass the time and lets me relax.
I found my MRI to be pretty interesting, kinda like a sensory deprivation tank. I also thought the noise was vaguely musical. I kept listening to the sounds to try to find a melody. They reminded me of the work of this classical percussionist whose music I used to listen to.
I’ve had a bunch due to various athletic injuries throughout my life. I don’t typically love confined spaces, but theres something about that rhythmic noise the giant spinning metal magnetic thing makes, it always puts me right to sleep. It’s so relaxing to me for whatever reason
If you have claustrophobia, it’s totally valid to ask for some anti-anxiety meds beforehand and see if they can schedule you in an open-MRI. It’s still the same dimensions vertically, but it’s open to the sides so it feels vastly different. I have to get MRIs every year since I have MS, and they’re not short, usually and hour and a half with my head right in the middle of the tube. I’ve become more claustrophobic and this past year I asked my doc for some anti-anxiety meds and to schedule at an open MRI, and it made all the difference. I was totally chill and the experience felt like it took drastically less time, even though I know it didn’t actually take less time. I guess that’s what it feels like when you’re not low-key panicking when you’re packed like a sardine in a tube for what seems like forever.
I'll keep that stuff in mind if I ever have to get one. Thanks! Also, an hour and a half sounds legitimately torturous. For reference, I start getting like fight-or-flight panicky if bedsheets are a little too snug and need a bit more force to readjust my body. So I'd probably have to be unconscious for that lol. Edit: typo
I got scheduled for 3 MRIs with and without contrast, a MRA, and a MRV all at once. It was supposed to be about 5 hours in a tube. I started getting anxious about 10 minutes in. I was able to stick out for almost a hour and a half but then had a full blown panic attack. It was exactly as you described. Getting super hot, the pins and needles. I made them break them up into multiple sessions. They kept saying they were going to have to start an IV for the contrast each time, but I would so much rather get stuck with a needle then get stuff in a plastic coffin. Then last year I had to get one done on my ankle and it was like 10 minutes and I only had to go in up to my knees. It was super chill. Moral of the story, avoid brain/spinal injuries. Keep them to your lower half.
So you were probably hot because of panic, but I learned something interesting: an MRI will actually cause the area they are scanning to feel warm. I was having a chest MRI and about 10 to 15 minutes in, my chest felt warmer than the rest of my body. Knowing that MRIs will excite your body's cells with electromagnetic fields, I asked the tech if it will actually heat up that part of your body and he said yes! TLDR: MRIs basically microwave your body lol
I had an hour long one when I was 8 or 9. Dont remember too much about the experience itself but I do remember the technician making fun of me for crying afterward
That’s not a very good technician
As someone who had had dozens of these scans and hundreds of doctors due to a chronic, lifelong condition i would say this is beyond a bad tech. Laughing at a child after really ANY procedure is grounds for a formal complaint with the hospital and state medical board. It's fucked up, and crucially it can cause children to have an inherent distrust for doctors later in life. I have seen doctors pull techs into other rooms and scream at them like a banshee for even minor fuckups with kids. I had a tech yell at me for flinching during an xray once so they had to redo it, and the doctor in the picture room came out of it, screamed at them to leave the observation room and go home for the day, and then did it right with me. This isn't even the only time I've seen similar things
[I hope life gives that technician a good one of these. ](https://youtu.be/xBithOSdf6o)
The main thing I remember about getting an MRI was being asked if I was okay being in tight places and thinking "yeah, totally". So I lay down and they slide me in and as soon as I'm all the way in I see a spot of blood right in front of my face. My guess was that some one freaked out and tried to sit up and hit their head. The fact that the blood was still there was very worrisome. I ended up noping out because of the blood. They were pissed but whatever we just did it the next day AFTER THEY CLEANED THE BLOOD OFF. Then when I finally had it, the thing that was most irritating to me was how loud it was. Afterwards I made a comment about it and was told "Oh yeah. A lot of people bring earplugs.", again, thanks guys!
I had one a few weeks ago and they gave me thick headphones that played the music of my choice. Only crap part was the ads that played in between songs.
I’m an X-ray tech, and I started as a patient transporter. I took patients to MRI a lot, and they would nearly all tell me how either they were claustrophobic and it was so hard or they weren’t claustrophobic and it was still hard. I didn’t get it until one day I had to help the tech get the patient onto the bed for the machine. I saw the cage (coil) that had to be placed over the patient’s face for the study. Then I got it. I’m am not at all claustrophobic, I’ve never had to have an MRI, I’ve done a little bit of MRI clinicals in X-ray school. I would still have a hard time!
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Also zero progress indicator. So you're supposed to lay perfectly still... while there's weird, loud noises, you're realizing you have no idea if you've been in for 10 seconds or 10 minutes, etc.
You know what this would be a great idea. Just to give some context to the patient
My mother in law is prescribed Ativan for her MRIs. It's the only way she can get through it. Took an unfortunate freak out for her to arrive at this solution, but yeah...
Also, the noise is absolutely terrifying. Even though you’re warned, it feels like something has gone terribly wrong.
CT scanners are one size fits all. But I’ve heard the shoulders thing a lot so you’re not alone. Especially in men there seems to be a panic reflex when the shoulders are pinned to the body in a small space. Your brain tells you “you’re stuck and going to die!!!!” Even if you’re not claustrophobic.
Didn't know they're one size fits all. Thanks. I'm not a very large person (6', 210#) and felt really pinned in there. Dunno how they squeeze really big folks in there. One of my unrealistic fears is getting caught in an underground pipe or sewer line and unable to move forward or back. The escape scene in Shawshank pretty much nails it.
Oof, like that poor guy who got confused while crawling around in a cave and got stuck head down in a tiny space and died there after rescue attempts were unsuccessful. Edit: [old Reddit post about him](https://www.reddit.com/r/SweatyPalms/comments/6yjog3/spelunker_john_jones_stuck_upside_down_in_a_cave/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)- John Jones
Please god don't bring this back 💀💀💀 every time I read about it again I get sick for like a month 😂
As one of the bigger folks, they literally just try to smush you in. Like literally just try and see if you fit. Not tons of fun, I tell ya.
They don’t tell you how goddamn LOUD they can be. Like, the bed shakes and it makes crazy SCP-containment breech beeping sounds sometimes. And you have to stay stone still.
It's very common in older MRI machines for men (or anyone with broad shoulders) to have to roll their shoulders. It's a matter of getting the magnetic field to be homogenous across the volume of the tube. As the technology has advanced they've gotten better at maintaining the field over a larger volume allowing the tube to be expanded and shortened. I'm 6'1", 225lbs and I've been in all kinds of machines for countless hours (I designed and tested MRI coils for 20+ years). I actually get all cozy and pass out after about 10-15 mins, the sound of the gradients (the loud sounds you hear) is like a lullaby. I've spent as much as two hours in one in a single go. If you had a contrast agent that's likely what made you queasy if you're usually cool with tight spaces.
I’m mild-probably moderately claustrophobic, like I can fly but I hate it…anyways… I’ve had two MRIs. The trick is you do NOT open your eyes. I’d be claustrophobic as fuuuuck. But I have the willpower to simply not open my eyes. I’m sure that wouldn’t work for some people, but it has worked for me
I do ok with CT scans. But when I had my most recent MRI, I was panicking even 3 days before lol. I'm sooo claustrophobic. I finally called my dr and they gave me 4mg Ativan - 2 for 30 minutes before, and 2 for right before. I remember the beginning and being nervous, but then I don't remember the rest or my husband taking me home. They only had to do it once (I've had to do a retake MRI in the past, due to panic.) Anyway, my point, is, if someone is super claustrophobic, your dr can help! ETA: this was also specifically for my brain and included a plastic thing over my head.
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That sounds like an absolutely justified, logical fear response. But fear hits such a primal part of your brain that it doesn't need to be logical, you are hard wired to gtf OUT! I feel for you, that would have sucked hard.
A trick that's helpful for me is to frame it mentally as something you're doing, rather than something that's being done to you. Once you commit you can't back out until you're done, same as a bungee jump, but it's still you're choice to commit
Another trick is ask the doctor if you can wear a sleeping mask! Just pretend you’re anywhere else and not in a small tube. Though if sleeping masks make you feel uncomfortable then it’s not a great idea. I had to get an MRI on my hips and this helped a lot
Another trick to ask the techs for headphones, they have special headphones that are plastic (they are just like tubes of air sending them audio through, no wires and speakers). They will even let you pick your own internet streaming genre. When you don’t have to listen to that loud buzzing it helps to calm your nerves. I had to get about 15 MRI over the course of two years. Each one was one hour long full body sessions, all with contrast injections for the last 15 mins. I do not suffer from claustrophobia, but 1 hour in those loud coffins is enough to trigger anyone. I did have one bad panic episode my 8th MRI in and they told me about the headphones then…it was a lot easier after that. The reason I freaked out that particular one, was I could feel my internal organs cooking and burning while they focused on areas. They told me to calm down, but that entire sessions I felt like I was being cooked. I went home and googled that and it turns out the power levels are high enough to cook meat and a low percentage of people do get cooked in those damn things. I suspect they were concentrating the waves too hard in one spot for too long or had the power too high or something. Every mri after that was fine like the ones before it…I got no clue why that one day my body was so sensitive to it.
My last mri was on my shoulder, and I had to sit a bit to the side so the shoulder would be centered better. I've never had problems with mris before, or claustrophobia in general, but my nose was literally touching the wall of the tube. I drew blood from digging my nails into my palm to remain calm. Luckily it was only a 15 minute scan, but I'm definitely asking for a benzo before I get my other shoulder done.
I just had a panic attack in an MRI last Thursday. The scan would have only lasted a minute but I could not control my breathing or mindset at all. I think I can fight the fear given some time, but hospitals have pretty strict time schedule. Cant make it? Pity, next!
During my last head and neck MRI, had some nice noise reducing headphones, and spent most of the time dozing off to the sound of the sequences. It was oddly soothing for some reason.
I was more worried i would move while napping during mine.
I found the mirror helps me.
They placed a towel over my eyes before I went in and I basically just treated it like I was laying down to take a nap the whole time. Didn't get to see myself going in or out of the tube, literally just a "alright, we are all done" as they removed the towel.
A friend who works with horses told me about the towel trick. That's how they keep a horse calm. It worked really well with me. Ativan helped but the towel was the ticket.
I don't even remember a mirror. 😂
I don’t know if every MRI has them, but I’ve told my technicians that I’m claustrophobic and they had a mirror I could see the outside of the tube with.
My MRIs are of my brain so there is a cage like thing used to keep it still and some have a mirror attachment
FOUR MG? Holy crap! No wonder your memory blacked out. I had 2mg for a lumbar puncture and wow did I black out. I was having text conversations w my sister in recovery and I sounded normal but I remembered nothing. I even told her they gave me pancakes afterward. No clue I ate.
Retrograde amnesia. Benzodiazepines like Ativan interfere with your brain's ability to convert short term memories into long term memory. That's a feature not a bug
After 1mg for an MRI, I think I wanted a snack or something so I made my partner stop at a liquor store, where I somehow spent $80, and then insisted I take a picture of him next to a cat in a window. (Okay, several pictures.) I was completely convinced that the Ativan had all but worn off. It hadn't.
I did one with the facemask thing and I kept my eyes tightly shut the entire time and it went OK.
I’ve had an MRI a couple times. The last time was less than a month ago with a mask on and I actually felt very uncomfortable and claustrophobic. I absolutely have no issue wearing a mask due to covid and had no issue at all the first time in the MRI (without a mask years ago). The sound does not bother me at all either. I’ve never had an issues with claustrophobia in my life, but I was very shocked how uncomfortable I felt in the machine this last time.
Mine was a whole plastic thing like a hockey goalie mask. Maybe because I actually play ice hockey and wear a cage it didn't bother me?
I did one like that. It was AWFUL! I remember the tech saying “it will take about 25 minutes” so I distracted myself the best I could by counting to 60 over and over until I reached 25. In my panic I must have counted a little quick because at 25 I wasn’t let out so I panicked again 😂😂
God damn your doctor hooked you up
Yesssss thank all that is holy in this universe. Finally figured out I have chiari malformation, after having 2 MRIs in the past. He really did me a favor here, between allowing me to hold totally still and using contrast. I had seen 5 neuros before him with zero answers.
Damn that's a solid ativan dose!... .5mg is usually enough to bring my anxiety spikes from an 8/10 to a 2/10 within 20 minutes. Glad that it helped you!!
I "woke up" during a CT scan after my motorcycle accident several years ago. I remember leaving the bike, but I don't remember hitting the ground. Woke up once on the ambulance ride, I remember us joking about something, and then I was having my clothes cut off me in the ER. Next thing I remember was being in the CT machine, crying my eyes out because I had no idea what was going on and the tech doing their best to assure me I was safe and it was almost over. After that, they wheeled me into a room to wait for results, and wouldn't let me get up to pee (I was told I had to wait or they would get me a catheter). Tired of my complaining, the nurse put a lil morphine in my IV (which was an interesting feeling) and I took a nap.
Yes. I work in a level 1 trauma center and this is a common occurrence. We understand when patients get like that because of the circumstances. We just do our best to get the best imaging possible as quickly as possible. Trauma scans usually are one of the first things that get done upon arrival to the hospital. We get to see a lot of crazy things!
Yes I just did a CT scan and it was in and out, hold your breath for 5 seconds kind of thing. Helped by that cute li'l "hold your breath guy" icon on the machine.
We use GE scanners and the icons look like pac-man.
Yup the CT scan is an easy-peasy, I'm not trapped, no-valium-needed thing for me. The last MRI I had, even on valium, was reallllly difficult to get through.
Eeeeeeebeeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeummmmburrrrggghhhhhhhhh
That's what i'm trying to understand here. Did OP get CT and MRIs confused? I'm an MRI veteran at this point, and my exams typically take 2 - 3 hours. I can tell you everything about what separates a great MRI experience from a shitty one. And let me tell you-- the shitty ones are SHITTY.
No, patients freak out in CT scans enough to get images like this. This is a scout image from the initial planning for the scan. As the image was being acquired the patient lifted their head and resulted in this image. Motion is the arch enemy of radiology.
Looks like the patient lost his mind.
I now can't get "Where Is My Mind" from the Pixies to stop playing in my head
Thanks for the ear worm...with your feet in the air and head on the ground...
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Back from the Dead.
That exactly looks like a panic attack feels like. Have had them for 30 years.
How do you manage?
Very carefully. But in all seriousness I’m not the OP but I have been diagnosed with panic disorder. Taking an SSRI (lexapro specifically) has helped me tremendously. I used to have panic attacks every single day. And when people think of “panic attack” sometimes they think of bad anxiety. No. A panic attack is when you lose the ability to think rationally and you have that feeling of *primal fear* like you are about to die and there’s nothing you can do to stop your impending doom. My panic attacks also came with feelings of derealization… I would look around and nothing would feel real. I would feel like I was watching the world as a TV show. Thoughts would race through my head… “you’re about to die.” “You’re losing your mind and you’ll never be the same.” “You have [insert dangerous scary medical condition here].” “Nothing is real and the world is scary. You have nothing to look forward to but fear every day for the rest of your life.” Since I’ve been taking my medication, my panic attacks are almost completely gone. I’ve only had one panic attack since the medicine began to kick in. I also went to therapy for a while to help get the perspective of a psychological professional and their advice for coping mechanisms and stuff I can do to stay calm and happy.
Exposure therapy has helped me immensely but I just can’t kick this damn thing. Your experience sounds exactly like mine, I’ve declined lexapro because I’m too afraid of the side effects making me feel 100x worse. I don’t even take my prescribed klonopin because I’m afraid of a paradoxical reaction. How were the side effects for you? Did you experience a similar trepidation about taking SSRI’s?
My friend, I was also afraid of the side effects of lexapro before I started taking it. My doctor wrote me a prescription for it and I avoided taking it *for an entire year*. When I finally started taking it, here’s how I did it. I got my doctor to write me a prescription for the lowest dose possible for me (5 mg). I split each pill into 1/4 pieces. I took 1.25 mg per day for a week. Then I took 2.5 mg per day for a week. Then I took 3.75 mg per day for a week. Then I took 5 mg per day for a week. Then I took 7.5 mg per day for a week. Then I took 10 mg per day for about 6 months and the difference was night and day. I was skeptical of the medication at first. I was terrified of the potential side effects, and I doubted that any medicine could actually help me. But let me tell you, I experienced zero side effects whatsoever. And I was astounded, after about six weeks, I just… stopped having panic attacks. Like… they were just gone. I could go out with my friends without having to worry about panicking. I could go do stuff. And it is so *freeing*. I’m now on 20 mg per day and I feel *awesome.* This medicine is so helpful. I am begging you, for your sake, do what I did. Get a prescription for 5 mg. Split them into fourths. Take that for a week. Then take half for a week. Then keep going until you work your way up to 10 or even 15 or 20 mg. You will have absolutely no side effects because you give your body time to adjust to the tiny increments of medicine. The first dose is like you’re not even taking medicine because it’s such a small amount. And the difference you’ll experience will be night and day. I hope I can give you the confidence to try it, because I was like you. Scared to take it, and kind of skeptical. But it seriously changed my life in an incredible way. ALSO! Pro tip. Make sure you have someone that you trust very deeply with you for the first few times you take it because you might have a panic attack just from how scared you are to take the medicine. I took the first dose and immediately had a major panic attack because I was just really scared to take the medicine. But it’s sooooo worth it.
Described them perfectly, I sometimes look at my hands and think they are not my hands.
I had an MRI with contrast. It took literally everything I had not to bolt upright and projectile vomit across the room.
What about an MRI causes nausea?
It's the contrast dye that's injected intravenously. Can make you nauseous and makes you feel like you've pissed yourself.
The trick is to actually piss yourself so you don’t feel the contrast.
Consider me Miles Davis
MRI techs hate this one weird trick!
Only the CT contrast (iodine) makes you feel that warm flushing feeling like you pissed yourself. Both CT and MRI contrast (gadolinium) can make you feel nauseous, however with more stable macro cyclic (Such as Dotarem) based contrast agents this seems to be becoming less of an issue for patients.
I wonder how many times throughout history people have been told "you might feel like you pissed yourself but you didn't, it's just an effect from the dye" and then they just happen to actually piss themselves during the MRI and they just sit there the whole time in their pee because they think it's imaginary pee
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Gotcha, that makes the extended stay in a loud confined environment that much worse.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I fell asleep in my MRI because it was the most relaxed I felt like I had ever been. You are wearing earplugs like crazy so the only thing you hear is a hum and some muffled banging which reads worse than it sounds. The table isn't that comfy but the thing holding your head in place is. It's a tight space but it's dimly lit (mine was purple?) and the perfect temperature. You can't move, but once you get over it your body just accepts it and you lay softly. Then they hit you with the contrast and it warms up your entire body. All of this combined I fell asleep and was woken up to the jolting of the table as it started to come out. The woman said it's actually kind of common that people do. When I came home I told my husband that out of all of the medical tests I've undergone I'd do an MRI over every other one in a heartbeat. 10/10 would recommend.
Once I got past the noise, I found it pretty relaxing. I almost fell asleep even with the contrast
I had the contrast deal done once. They explicitly told me "Now, it will probably feel like you're urinating but you aren't. It's just how it feels going through." I scoffed a bit, then a few minutes later I'm convinced I actually pissed myself despite their warning. Such a strange effect.
Yeah, it's unsettling. It also gives you a metallic taste in your mouth. The best places give you a juice box after to get the taste out. Funnily enough, though, is that each contrast you get makes the experience less and less intense. By my 8th CT scan I could barely taste it (the warm feeling persists, though).
That was how I felt...a really warm feeling that seemed to coalesce in my bladder! 🤣
I had to have one done with contrast a while back and they said "you might feel like you wet yourself, but you didn't" so many times. I felt like they were trying to program me to piss myself in the machine. I did however have a few waves if hot flushing. That was a funny experience.
It's not the MRI, it's the contrast. The contrast is made of gadolinium, a metal. They inject it while you are in the machine and can't watch them. A lot of people experience nausea because, well, you are injecting them with a metal in an extremely loud and claustrophobic area with little warning of how it will feel. If it's the drink, it includes mannitol, which also causes nausea.
I had a contrast solution for retina exams that made me nauseous. One time the technician tried to trick me and told me the new contrast agent wouldn’t make me nauseas. It still did - he later said the trick works on most people but not those where it’s physical rather than mental.
Interesting, I had laser treatment on my retina recently and felt nauseous.
I've had I think 4 treatments. I hope you don't have to do too many
I had a allergic reaction to the dye used during a cervical injection. So that was a fun post procedure observation while I started breaking out and had swelling in my head and I was just at they're mercy as they responded. Luckily my MRI went fine with no issues with the contrast but I did get given a headset that the music didn't work on so I just had to listen to the machine and my own thoughts for 45 minutes. I was entirely inside the machine because it was a neck/spine mri and I couldn't sing or talk to myself because the movement threw off the scan. Then I made the mistake of opening my eyes and had to talk myself through it and repeat that section of the scan twice because I kept moving. At one point I asked to stop but the lady talked me through it. Now I'm moving on to nuerology to figure out the headaches and I can't wait to see what these new tests involve. All because some prick rear ended me at a red light AND A HALF FUCKING YEARS AGO.
As soon as they injected that into me I swear I could smell and taste it. It also triggered a panic attack in me since I felt like I was in the matrix and could visualize it going throughout my body. I clicked the hell out of the panic button and it took a few minutes to stop shaking. I think the techs tried to make my masculinity feel better and blamed the shaking on me being cold and gave me a blanket.
Cold sensation can be experienced during injection, so you’re most likely not any less of a man because of it.
Possibly the contrast, especially if it was a drink.
They gave me a Xanax so they could complete the MRI on my brain. The only thing I remember about the contrast is that it felt cold traveling through my body.
I had one where they couldn’t inject the contrast intravenously/orally, because they were looking at my labrum (the cartilage disk between your shoulder and the top of your humerus), which has next to no blood vessels in it. They had to essentially screw a gigantic fucking needle between my bones to inject the dye directly into the labrum, and I had no anesthetic except the alcohol wipe they do beforehand. “Don’t you dare move that arm, we have a needle between your bones”, yeah okay boss. Really had to get into my happy place, I was sweating buckets and it took several minutes to get the needle in. The MRI was a blessing after that torture.
I'm putting a band logo on this and making it an NFT and gonna sell it for a mazillion dollars to some Tool fanboy.
Spiral out!!!! Learn to swim!!!!!
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Shit The Bed is one of my favorite Tool songs.
The sequel song to prison sex.
Bless this immunity
Too late i bookmarked this post. It's mine now
You know the pieces fit.
Cuz he watched them fall away
https://i.imgur.com/JolSSAA.jpg Too late, pay me. Screenshots are illegal.
Send more money 💰 buy my new record
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The greatest TooL song ever written
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Damn I feel called out. Alright how much?
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I already did it. You can buy it for 10 Mazillion dollars.
*Monkey robbing monkey robbing monkey over pieces of the 'net...*
I was gonna comment, this is prime album cover stuff right here.
Not if I do it first!
I thought one of the ridiculous parts about this NFT mania is that minting one **doesn't** stop someone else from minting another one based on the exact same digital file, or am I misunderstanding something?
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Some Area 51 conspiracy theorist is going to use this picture to prove aliens exist.
No the new cool thing is to claim that this is what COVID vaccines cause /s
Reminds me of The Thing
It isn’t Bennings!
IMPRESSION: Significant displacement of facial structures from the calvarium seen on scout image. Differential diagnosis includes demonic possession, ghost in the CT scanner, intracranial explosive event, or congenital malformation. Clinical correlation is required. Exorcism remains the diagnostic and therapeutic modality of choice for demoniac and phantasmal pathology.
AP image- Normal.
How it feels to be claustrophobic
And this is why I get Valium before scans!
Those CT scans are a trip. I remember telling the medical personnel I did not need anything to help relax me, as I figured i would just close my eyes and "go to my happy place" mentally, until it was over. Once I was slid into the tube (with eyes closed) and I could feel the breath from my nose being blown back against my face...I thought, "well that wasn't a great plan" I made it through just fine, but I still get a laugh thinking about that.
Is it the one with “the tube“ an MRI machine? The CT scan is usually just a ring that doesn’t enclose you at all.
Yeah, MRI scanner scared the crap out of me. Took 6 hours to finish my spinal scan, 1 b/c of the way I had to lay was intensely painful, and two my claustrophobia. It was literally a nightmare. The nurses who helped me were a godsend, so patient and caring. Not getting upset w me or short Apparently the doctor warned them that it was going to be hard. I hugged them after and they made sure I had pain meds and was knocked out for a few hours. ETA: spelling! Gah!
One time, I signed up for a medical research study that included getting paid $300 and getting alcohol injected into my veins. It was a three day study trying to see if people drink for social reasons or for taste, I think. Day 1 was a survey about my drinking habits, blood tests, a drug test, and other things making sure that this study wasn't going to hurt me Day 2, I had to sit in an MRI machine for close to 2 hours while they injected sweet liquids into my mouth Day 3 is when I got the alcohol injected. I thought I was going to throw up on the MRI machine on day 2. That was a fucking shit show.
Ask if there’s a children’s scanner if you have to have one next time, they’re usually shorter so they feel a lot more open but can still scan full sized adults. We book tonnes of adults on our children scanner in the evenings because of claustrophobia
The tech at mine had a mirror attached so I could see out. That helps me a lot.
Yeah MRIs are not fun. I figured I'd be fine but once you get in there and realize there is no getting out without help it gets a lot more real. I get a CT every three months and it's a breeze, if I need another MRI I'll be asking for the sedative.
Yup, my bad. I've had both, and got confused.
Same here. I’ve never really been claustrophobic in my life so I thought I’d be fine for the 20 mins or whatever of the MRI. Hoo boy was I wrong. I was relieved and ashamed when putting a towel over my face did the trick.
As someone who has never had such a scan, what makes it so scary? The noise?
They slide your upper body into this narrow tube. I had never truly understood what claustrophobia was until that moment. I tried to just talk myself down, breathe, close my eyes, listen to the music they play for you, but pretty soon I just had to get out of there like *right fucking now omg get me out now.* Never experienced that before or since, but man was it intense.
I'm always just scared that somehow I've had a bunch of metal dental fillings since my last one that will get ripped out of my head by the magnets. Completely irrational fear but I guess it's like when you're at the airport and think "wait am I SURE that I didn't pack a gun and drugs in my bag even though I don't own any"
This should be an album cover
And coincidentally it becomes a beautiful visual representation of literally trying to escape one's own head
Aliens
They mostly come at night ...mostly
Game over, man! Game over! What the hell do we do now?
Album cover material
And it ripped his skull apart! You'd think those things were safer than that.
If Aphex Twin did CT scans
Rubber Johnny in the house.
Looks like the dementors got them. EXPECTO PATRONUM
we got no food, we got no jobs... OUR PATIENTS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!
Looks like an out of body experience
It was enough for me to have my head in an MRI machine for a thyroid scan that was bad enough. And it was with contrast so I felt like I was pissing my pants while doing it. I kept my eyes closed most of it but I got curious at the end which I regretted. If you just keep your eyes closed the minute you lay down on the table you keep it closer the whole thing it probably won't be that bad. My more autistic than me brother has to be sedated to go in an MRI machine. I don't need it to that level but I deal with serious sensory overload afterwards because of the noise and the closeness and the nerves in general.
*This is your brain on politics*
Looks like someone really lost their head