I left work a bit early to drive to the Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital in Charlotte, NC. Prior to entering the MRI examination room, I removed all metal objects and bling. As I entered the room there was a loud, intermittent, chirping noise. The radiology technician assured me that that was from hydraulic pumps circulating liquid nitrogen to keep the magnets cool. Somehow that was not very reassuring to me. He gave me earplugs and told me that I should try and keep from moving or swallowing, if at all possible unless the MRI is "quiet" for recalibration as it was now to which I replied, "You mean that this is quiet?"
As soon as I lay down on the table I experienced quite a bit of pain in my upper back and shoulder. I'm not sure how long the entire procedure took. There were about 3 - 5 sessions ranging from approximately three minutes to about ten minutes. While not claustrophobic, the pain I was experiencing due to my neck/back followed by the various loud noises caused my breathing to get a bit out of control at times. I had no problems with opening my eyes and seeing roof of the MRI chamber a mere inches from my face. However, I had to resort to playing mind games--99 bottles of beer and others to keep the pain in check (as best I could) and to keep what was left of my sanity. After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally pulled out. I don't think I could have taken much more. In a nutshell (and I mean that, literally), it sucked. I'm not even sure if it would've helped had I had a hot, female radiology technician performing the procedure. On the contrary I had a rather large fellow named Richard. Of course he was extremely nice and helpful.
Personally I think that the MRI exam goes like this...the actual procedure takes about 10-20 seconds. MRIs are truthfully highly unreliable machines. The actual banging you hear is the radiology tech pummeling the side of the MRI with a pipe wrench to get it to work properly.
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