MRI scan

[redbird]

I went to the hospital today for an MRI (head and cervical spine). I got home about 20 minutes ago, and am glad that's done with (even though I am going back on the 29th for another scan).

It seemed louder than in the past, which suggests that I didn't have my earplugs in properly this time, given that the last MRI was in the same place. Also, I had to take off my good N95 mask and put on a hospital-provided medical mask with no nose wire or other metal, which I would have minded less if the medical staff were still masking. *sigh* Last year they told me to change masks; this year, I had to ask for the MRI-safe one, they would have been perfectly happy for me to be unmasked.

And also, I wound up standing on a very crowded bus on my way home, and by the time I'd gotten off the bus and was waiting for a trolley my hip was bothering me.

Further thoughts on masking for the MRI, based on kareina's comment: I wonder whether they would let me wear the good mask until I go into the room, then hand it to them along with my eyeglasses. If so, that would cover the time in the waiting room and corridor.

Reasoning: During the MRI is in fact low risk, but I don't know how good the air exchange is in that room. I put on the cheap mask for protection while the techs were getting me settled in the machine, which involves standing close enough to position pillows and bolsters. Also to protect myself from hospital staff outside the MRI room, or from other patients I may be near while I'm waiting to be called in. Almost none of the staff are masking now, and I'm not going to assume that other people who are there for MRIs don't have possibly asymptomatic covid, even if they're being scanned for something unrelated, like my scans to look for new demyelinatio.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I had to do that. But at least my techs were masked.

[otter]

I'm finding it is a lot of work to remember to ask that staff mask in the room with me. My PT does it without my asking after the first time, because she's good about it to begin with and I see her often. But other docs and support staff, not so much.

[kareina]

huh, I wouldn't have thought of wearing a mask *in* the MRI, I mean that is a pretty serious social distance. Or do they not do any sort of decontamination between sessions?

[redbird]

In the MRI is probably low risk, but I don't know what the air exchange or filtering is in that room. But that mask is more to protect me from hospital staff or other patients I may interact with or sit near while waiting to be called in, and while the techs are getting me settled in the machine. Almost none of the staff are masking now, and I'm not going to assume that other people who are there for MRIs don't have possibly asymptomatic covid, even if they're being scanned for something unrelated, like my scans for whether the MS has progressed.

Having read this, I'm wondering if I could ask them to let me wear the good mask until I go into the room, then give it to them along with my eyeglasses. If so, that would cover the time in the waiting room and corridor. (It's not as though that procedure mask is much good against airborne viruses anyhow.)

[kareina]

That makes much more sense--when I read it the first time I had pictured you switching masks at the last second, at the same time as you handed over the glasses.

[redbird]

I don't have much confidence that the flat medical mask will do much, especially given that they have to remove the nose wire for use in the MRI. I don't have a great deal of faith in them anyhow, and they're designed to work with that wire shaping them.

[ethelmay]

I wonder if you could tape it at the edges? (There are some really amazingly comfortable medical tapes available now.)