It's a good thing we dropped by Radiología on Friday for information on how and what, because the MRI is at 12:30, but you can not have breakfast. Or, nothing after 08:00. The clever engineer prepared a muesli breakfast the night before, set his alarm to 06:00, and survived that part of the ordeal.
Gadolinium
They make you sign a waiver, especially for the contrast dye. "Gadolinium" it said in the papers. Gadolinium? That's a rare earth metal. What..?
Apparently gadolinium is the most paramagnetic substance on Earth, and is used as a contrast dye in MRI imaging.
Still, eh.. gadolinium? Wiki has this to say:
"Gadolinium(III) ions in water-soluble salts are highly toxic to mammals."
ow. The engineer definitely IS a mammal, despite everything.
“However, chelated gadolinium(III) compounds prevent the gadolinium(III) from being exposed to the organism, and the majority is excreted by healthy[9] kidneys before it can deposit in tissues. Because of its paramagnetic properties, solutions of chelated organicgadolinium complexes are used as intravenously administered gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents in medical magnetic resonance imaging.”
That's all good, then.
Wait what is this “majority” that is excreted?? What about the rest?
MRI
The RM (Resonancia Magnetica) is located in the cellar, down 1 floor, very atmospheric dungeon.
The waiver I had received apparently has a list of questions, but was printed so small that it was not legible for the engineer's current state of his eyes. Nor for the other engineer's state of his eyes. It's a list about metal in your body, and if you work in a metal workshop, if you have piercings, pacemakers, implants, etc. No, and his piercings the engineer already removed, as he's not that daft.
You have to undress, only keep your underpants on. The engineer had expected that and was prepared. And he had to wear a negligee. (ooh!)
It's a huge machine, big vertical ring, with a plank that you have to lay down on. Bzzz! Into the machine, with a needle in his arm. No idea what they connected, or what the gadolinium looks like. Fantasised about bright green, or purple. Probably just colorless.
Cage over your head, a squeeze ball switch to alarm the technians in case you get unwell, pads next to your ears, to dampen the noise and fix your head in place.
"Can you say now and then how many more minutes?" (it was supposed to be sort of 20 minutes)
"Just relax"
Well and noise it makes. A whole symphony of sirens, clicks, sawing machines, drills, whooping sounds, drones, ... Some parts were like a bad house track, some parts were almost Kraftwerk.
The engineer just stared up at a text on the cage he could not read. What do you do, can you breathe normally? Can I move my eyes? Better not. There are two minute holes, with a prism, so you can see the ring of the machine, and the technicians walking by. Not much for them to do, but watch engineer Jansen.
And engineer Jansen just stared up. The arm with the needle started to get stiff. Aha, they are administering the contrast now, apparently.
On and on... drone, click, BZZ...
Started counting the "sweeps"
Lost count.
"This must be another 5 minutes"
"Or 2?"
“15?"
And how many times have I thought that?
Lost count.
Aargh, a beginning itch. Ignore ignore ignore!
They could have sedated the engineer, if the engineer was not such an adversary towards sedation.
How long is a minute, actually?
Well, inside an MRI machine time is different.
Just concentrate on staring up, and breathing slowly.
I dared flex one finger of the hurting arm, making sure the head stayed still.
..
"Ready!"
The noise stopped and plank rolled out of the machine.
"Careful, you may feel slightly dizzy"
Slightly dizzy was a bit of an understatement, they needed to support the engineer walking back to the changing closet.
Let's ask dr. Google (Ad Interim) for an explanation:
Even read somewhere that the better your vestibular system is, the dizzier you are.
Well, the engineer has a very healthy vestibular system.
The engineer sat on the chair a few minutes before taking off the negligee (ooh!), and be taken home.
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