My first...my second MRI

[Cobweb]

So, I have the fortune (good or bad) to be a long-time patient, as well as a nurse. I went for my first MRI last week. Hey, guess what, I had no idea, but apparently I am a little claustrophobic. It was bad but I was doing OK by concentrating on the music until they started having me hold my breath 17 seconds every minute. My lung function is not the best, by the way. After about the 4th go-round, apparently I passed out. I came to and I thought I was gonna have to give the little gal running the machine CPR. She was pretty pasty. I scared her to pieces, poor thing.

"Well, " I said to myself. "I believe it is time for better living through chemistry."

Now, you have to understand, my drug reactions are pretty weird sometimes, so I hardly ever take anything but my scheduled meds. I don't drink, or smoke, or even use caffeine. My GP gave me some Xanax. She told me to take a quarter of a milligram half an hour before the test and another quarter right before the test. I tried a quarter of a milligram about a week beforehand and I couldn't see that it did anything.

My MRI was scheduled at 7 am, so I took half a milligram about 6:30 am. It made me feel a little sleepy, but nothing huge. There were some mixups and overbooking and so on, (nothing unusual for a hospital ;p), so I didn't get into the test room until almost 9 am. I didn't want my meds to run out in the middle of the test, so I decided to take another half a milligram. They put me in the tube. I was perfectly fine this time; I couldn't understand why I had reacted so badly the last time, as everything seemed A-OK and I was very comfortable. I could hear the tech talking to me once in a while, and I held my breath when I was supposed to, but I was pretty chill, laying there in my tube.

Suddenly, I hear my son's voice through the headphones. I told him, "Hey, honey, I don't think you are supposed to be using that." He said, "Mom, you didn't seem to hear the lady. You need to stop singing for a while." I said, "What?" He said, "Stop singing, just for a minute, OK? And hold your breath when she tells you to." I said, "I already did that." He said, (he is the most patient guy ever) "I know, but you have to do it some more, OK?" I said, "OK."

He came back a bit later and said, "Mom, turn back on your back. How the hell did you turn over like that anyway?" I said, "I got bored." He said, I swear to God, "You turn on your back and don't sing any more, and I'll buy you some ice cream on the way home." Now, where have I heard something like that before?

Anyway, they had to do some extra stuff because of what they saw in my pictures, so I was there quite a long time, and by the time I got out I was nearly sober. I said, "Oh my God, I turned into the patient from Hell. I am so sorry." The tech said, "Oh, no, you are definitely not the patient from Hell. This is the most fun I have had all week. You really kicked ass on "We Are the Champions." Come back any time! And I really enjoyed the story about the doctor and the Reynolds wrap." I looked at her blankly. I really don't remember that part at all. I wish I knew that story!

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

Haha I am pretty benzo naive as well. I was septic with suspect meningitis at home - typical nurse - no I'm not sick enough for hospital. Finally agreed to go to ED was tachy at 140 on the monitor. ED consultant starts to mention a LP. My HR hits 160, RN suggests a little bit of midazolam. 2 mg later I am swaying from side to side as they try and prep me for the LP. Then they have me hold onto a sink to keep me in position. I start praising the people who put the sink there. What a wonderful idea it was etc. Off my trolley, took me ages to settle down and stop talking rubbish!!

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

This is the most awesome story I have heard to date, OP! Just too funny for words.

I hope that you had the best ice cream cone ever on the way home!!

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Too funny!

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

Well at least everyone had a good time. Too bad you don't remember most of it :)

[krisiepoo]

What kind of ice cream did you get? LOL

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

You better have gotten a good ice cream for that LOL.

[rnsrgr8t]

That is hilarious! At least you were funny when you were loopy. My mom had Versed when she had an endoscopy and was NASTY to everyone but was acting completely lucid so my Dad thought she was just being a ***** which is normally not typical for her. The endoscopy suite is part of the hospital my dad works at (he is an anesthesiologist) and he was so angry at her for her behavior with his staff. When she got home, she asked him why he was acting so mad at her (meds had worn off by then). When he told her, she was so upset b/c she had NO memory of it at all. It was all the Versed. She then got mad at my dad b/c, being an anesthesiologist, shouldn't he have know it was the meds not really her??? LOL I told her that she was not acting loopy at all, but perfectly lucid so it was not obvious that it was the versed. I still tease her about it. I think she ended up sending the staff something as an apology. :)

[rnsrgr8t]

I remember years ago, when I worked on a pediatric Hem/ONC/BMT floor, we had this little boy from Russia as a patient. He was so traumatized from all of his treatments, he was really combative whenever he saw anyone in uniform/lab coat. Couldn't blame him at all, but he would punch you, swear at you etc. Psych was at a loss for what to do with him at the time. When he would go down for his radiation treatments, he would get versed. He would go down, screaming and raising holy he** with his mom holding him down on the stretcher and come back (after the versed) kneeling on the stretcher by himself and singing! He was so funny on the versed...we kept asking the MD's if we could just do a Versed drip.

[fetch, BSN, RN]

The first time my dad took opioids (back in the 70s), he was supposed to walk from one part of the hospital to the other and was told to just follow the yellow line. He was doing fine until he reached a carpeted area where the yellow line moved from on the floor to on the wall - he got stuck trying to figure out how to walk on the wall!

[Cobweb]

I got Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia; it was great!

Lol, glad go know I'm not the only loopy one. After my colonoscopy, the part that bugged me the most was that I had my glasses on when I woke up. You all know how impossible it is to put people's glasses on when they are laying on their sides. That means I was lucid enough to put them on and follow directions, but I don't remember the slightest thing about it...kind of a Twilight Zone moment, if you have never experienced that kind of thing before.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

These are the types of stories that keep me from scheduling my colonoscopy :)