After quite a long wait my MRI appointment finally came, scheduled for 7.45am on Saturday at the RLI. If I’d read the letter better in advance I might have questioned the time since the MRI department doesn’t actually open until 8am and sure enough it involved standing around in a corridor for a while until there was actually someone to let me in. 

I was only having my knee scanned, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I got ushered in and was asked to fill in a form asking me about various different medical (and otherwise) reasons I might have loose metal about my body. Then I had to change out of my clothes into a hospital gown. I should imagine it looked quite strange to Andy, gowns are sort of intrinsically connected to “people who are ill”. I just thought it was cold and found it a bit strange wandering about without shoes and socks on. As I went into the MRI room the technician asked the questions again, I guess it’s really important you don’t take loose metal in there… I remembered I had a metal wire along the back of my teeth and panicked a bit, but she said as long as it was attached I’d be fine.

I had to lie down on a platform, and put my knee into something which looked a bit like a brace. It came in two halves and surrounded the knee that was being scanned. I have no idea what it did, maybe gave the machine some sort of frame of reference, but it wasn’t tight or uncomfortable. Then the technician told me the machine would be very loud, so I’d be listening to some music through headphones to take my mind off it. I’ll be honest, when she said I’d need to have my mind taken off what was going on, that was what made me worried. I hadn’t been until that point. She gave me a choice of genre, I asked for rock and was offered Meatloaf. We came to a Queen compromise.

The headphones were awful quality and the album was a live one but I was glad to have something to take my mind off having to lie completely still for 25 minutes. I was moved into the scanner so that only my head was sticking out, and the machine constantly blew fresh air on my face. I can see how that might help someone who was feeling a but claustrophobic, but it just made me cold, especially only wearing a cotton nightgown. The machine was indeed VERY noisy, sort of pulsing as the scan happened. There was also a loud background noise like a very noisy computer whirring next to my head. The headphones helped but they were a bit big for my head, so half of the ear piece was over my cheeks. 

Lying still is hard. It felt like forever had passed before she let me go, but when she did that was that. I didn’t get to see the pictures that had been taken, and she didn’t give me any indication that the scan had shown anything, or nothing. I suppose they aren’t qualified to make judgements, but it felt like a bit of a let down. I’m hoping that when I get the follow up appointment with the surgeon he’ll let me see the insides of my knee. I understood why she’d been so keen to move me on when I went to get changed, and found the next willing volunteer ready to be taken through.

All in all it was painless, a tiny bit stressful but not for any good reason other than you’re being made to lie inside a massive noisy machine that the employees seem to be taking great care not to stay around. I guess a bit like having an Xray really… I am looking forward to seeing the pictures that were produced, technology is awesome.