Please can someone tell me about the MRI. Finally got a date for next week. I know I will be injected with something, I think they said contrast. Asked me if I was claustrophobic, I said no based on the fact that I have never had Mri or been in that kind of situation.
How will I be positioned, can I close my eyes, do you get headphones, is it loud??
Any advice would be great.
Hi Raitchr,
I had the breast mri with contrast dye. It takes about 40 mins. The dye is used to help identify any suspicious area in the breasts.
You have a cannula put onto your arm first to inject the dye. For the scan you are laid face down on the scanner bed so the boobs hang down. It is noisy, but you are given headphones & even a choice of music.
The staff are v reassuring, you’re given an alarm if you feel you need to pause.
I did not find it claustrophobic & had my eyes open as I did find the experience interesting as well as slightly surreal once I was over the anxiety of having one.
ann x
Hi Raitchr, I had an mri after I was diagnosed a year ago. I’m not keen on small spaces so was a little worried but it wasn’t as confined as I thought it would be. I was given headphones and took an Ed Sheerin cd with me and actually felt quite relaxed! It is noisy and it did vibrate a bit and the hardest part was keeping my arms in the same position for the 40 minutes or so that it took. I had mine above my head as I find that more comfortable but I was given a choice of above head or by my side. Thankfully the mri did not show any other areas of cancer. Good luck, hope your results are good. Michelle xx
Hi, I had an mri back in Nov for the first time - do sometimes get claustrophobic but my gp prescribed me a mild sedative to take beforehand if I wanted. As it was I was fine - had a quick peep as I went into the tube but then just shut my eyes and listened to my music (I took my own CD in too). The most irritating thing was the music being interrupted by the person in the next room giving me instructions via the headphones, and yes my arms got a bit pins and needles too but nothing too bad. Hope it all goes fine x
Thanks everyone. They have changed my date to a week later, to me that is dragging it out longer but hope that its ok to do that.
The said I had ductal bc but it was small, about 1.5cm, didn’t show up in mammogram and was a struggle to size it on ultrasound biopsy.
Just back from MRI and it was fine. I was face down on bed with boobs hanging down in 2 tubes. Had headphones with radio on but it was drowned out by noise from machine. Took about 45 mins with prep as had contrasts injected partway through and then to get dressed again afterwards. Cannot fault the staff doing it at all, so caring and reassuring throughout. Just hoping the rest of my treatment will be the same.
Hi Helzie. I am planning mastectomy on right boob as that’s where the lump is. They wanted to cancel Mri when I had decided this but as I originally wanted double mx as Mum had it in both recently. They wouldn’t do double and remove “healthy” left boob. When I said my lump didnt show on mammogram so how can you say for sure left is healthy they agreed to Mri. Hopefully this will show exactly what is going on.