Lay in this tunnel. You're immobilized and can't move. Oh and no one can hear you call for help because of the loud jack-hammer like sounds. Wear these head-phones and we'll blast music into them so you'll feel better. Squeeze this little thing if you panic and we may come and help you.
It's a science machine to see inside your body without cutting you up. If a theme park offered MRI rides I'd be in there all day.
I've had two MRIs. One with Xanex, one without. I actually enjoy the sound of the machine, it can be rhythmic and pleasing.
The only time I had an MRI without Xanex, was a religious experience. Things were going well for 20 minutes (they had me in for just under an hour total) and then the thoughts of how people die in MRI machines came on strong. I'd seen a few videos of how strong they are [0] and the thought of being crushed or otherwise mutilated by a million dollar magnet, along with the confined space, was too much. I felt panic coming from a mile away, and it engulfed me. My brain was telling me to 'get the fuck outta here!'. I knew it was irrational fear. I took labored breaths. The fear moved from my feet to the top of my head and exploded. The pulse oximeter must have been going crazy because the tech asked how I was doing. "I'm fine." The lie worked, the fear immediately dissipated and a wave of euphoria rushed over me. I'm not going to die. I'm going to live! What should I do with my life? The best I can. I fell asleep a few minutes later. I woke up feeling fantastic.
On the other hand, the stance I had to adopt (even though lying down) meant I had to support the weight of my arms from shoulder to wrist, and after a while this became uncomfortable and caused them to shake a bit, at which point the MRI team thought I was freaking out - which I wasn't. Maybe this was just down to bad packing and could have been avoided.
The aircon in the room had also failed so I had a combined MRI and sauna; which meant the sensor pads kept coming unstuck and so I kept 'flatlining' and had to be removed from the scanner a couple of times for more bits of surgical tape.
The cute pictures, etc. definitely help, at least with kids. But the real improvement would be a 5-min intro to the patient, perhaps a simple video clip, explaining the technology to put them at ease. Just reading his description of the response of the technician to the child's fear, you can see that it could have been handled much better.
Well, at least not without leaving out the "1 ton magnet spinning around you at crazy speeds" part.
In any case, everybody goint into one of these things should at least be told that the machine works without ionizing radiation, i.e.: "Unlike a CT scanner, you are not at risk of getting cancer from this."
Maybe that puts at least some people at ease.
To be honest, the only time I had to go through this, I was not scared about anything else than the possible result of the scan, but the noise was disturbing at best.
Do you also avoid sleeping?
I had an MRI done and it took about 5 minutes to just gather in all the details of the situation. After that it was okay.