Say Cheese? Magnetic Resonance Imaging

MRI Scan Image

Last Updated on October 30, 2022 by Tom Kane

MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging

When my Oncologist told me I needed an MRI scan to ascertain the reason I’m in so much pain, I immediately thought of a super-fast high-tech machine which runs the patient in and out of its gaping maw in seconds, while quietly taking images of the workings of the inner body. My reality was far removed from my pleasant-sounding imaginings… sound being the operative word.

I entered the area where the MRI machine was kept and asked to be sure I had no metal on me. Then, fully clothed, I was led to the side of the mighty machine and handed two pink plastic earplugs.

“It can be noisy,” the technician/nurse said.

I suddenly had the feeling it wasn’t so much a matter of ‘say cheese for the camera,’ more of a ‘grit your teeth and don’t move a muscle.’ I shoved the earplugs into position and watched as the technician/nurse readied the stretcher for me to lay on. With a lot of pain and huffing and puffing I managed to manoeuvre myself into position.

The room went quiet as I stared up at the ceiling.

A disembodied voice spoke. “Are you ready?”

As I said, “Yes,” music blared out, Greek or Cypriot I have no idea, but the lyrics were in Greek. The machine loaded me into place and apart from the music all was quiet. Then came the Intruder Alert alarm from a Star Trek film.

Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah!

That was loud enough, but what followed was a tooth grinding cacophony that heralded each image taken by the machine… and there were a lot of images for the next hour.

By the time it was all over, I felt I had been assaulted, if not tortured, and my teeth, jaw and gums were chattering away to each other due to my excessive clenching of teeth.

But at least the result indicates all is fine with my hips and spine and the pain I am suffering is purely due to the chemotherapy, a natural response of the body when the process is doing its job and the cancer is being defeated.

However, I have one little quibble I would like to point out. Why does the image at the top of the page make me look like a candidate for a bulging-eyed Martian Mutant from the 1950s movie Invaders from Mars.

header image 50s movie Invaders from Mars

Just look at the eyes in both images! I’ll never be able to shave again without involuntarily smiling and taking a chunk of flesh out with my razor.

Copyright © Tom Kane 2022

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Synopsis

A young Magda Asparov travels alone from her home in Ukraine to America, to marry Matthew Turner, an unscrupulous American businessman. It’s an arranged marriage and part of the dowry is land in America the Asparovs own. But this parcel of land holds a secret only Turner is aware of. It has a huge reservoir of oil beneath it.
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Magda is rescued by another ship, captained by Richard Blackmore.

In the ship’s sickbay, it’s discovered the survivor has lost her memory. The crew of the rescue ship give the survivor a name, Maggie, to use until her memory returns. But as the ship sails to New York a new personality in Maggie takes hold, stifling Magda in the process.
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