has anyone else tried to go into this scanner and been unable to due to sheer terror of being so enclosed? am i the only wimp this has happened to?  :0(

I have had several and yes they can be very scarey but once you are inside so long as you practice your breathing and make sure you keep you body relaxed by concentration on the music and close your eyes it goes very quickly. Take a copy of one of your favourite CD's as that should help you focus.

Also focus on doing the scan is going to help in diagnose the porblem and make your life easier to cope with so in my book wll worth the effort to remain calm for a shirt while.

The one I had last weke luckily only had my legs and feet inside so it wasn't as bad but the ones on my back means you are fully inside but so long as you manage your fear you should be fine.

mine didnt have music and i would have had to have an injection to make my heart race-- i couldnt do it and it would have been half an hour! i did go in but had to come out

I agree you have to control your fears if you can.
For those who really need an MRI but cant tolerate the closed verion, your consultant can refer you to an 'open scanner' in another area.

You are not alone.I had a one a few years ago, my sister told me it isnt a very pleasant experience.............I was petrified and felt traumatised for days. My OH was very understanding and kindly remimded me that a friends children go in twice a year for scans due to epilepsy problems. I felt such a weekling but think if I needed another I would ask for sedation.

i thought of sedation but it wasnt offered to me. our local private hospital has an 'open' scanner for claustraphobics and people who are too big to fit in the tube one. obv i cant affort to pay privately. i dont know why it is such a narrow tube, if it had a foot above my head of space i wouldnt have felt too bad and if 'open' scanners excist then i think its a bad design
i think in future times they will be bigger or all open due to our obese society that they say is coming

Fortunately have not had to have one, but not sure I could control my fear.  So feel for you, there must be something that could be given to relax you? Get claustrophobia on the tube these days unless someone is with me!

I've had quite a few due to epilepsy and find that if I just concentrate on my breathing and 'zone out' I can get through it ok.

There was an elderly lady who was in before me one day who was terribly claustraphobic and apparently had been given a high dose of valium by her gp to take before she went in.  Poor woman was terrified and they couldn't do it in the end, even with the sedation.  It might be worth having a chat with your gp before you go.

Ironically I work for a company that makes a lot of the 'doings' that go in to MRI scanners made by a very big German company, they are looking into the business of supplying a 'play model' (not a Fisher price type thing) to hospitals so that children can be made to feel at ease before they come to have the real thing.

You're not alone in your fears, I too have had MRI's and as other's have said I really had to focus and tune myself out to be able to get through it.

if i went in for a minute and out then back in i suppose i would have been ok but i couldnt cope for 30 mins knowing the tunnel was right up against my face and they were all leaving the room too. i did go in and out once so i tried.
strangely enough im ok on the tube and flying too

When i had a MRI,Iwas scared at first but I relaxed and was singing to myself,I hear you knocking but you cant come in,its dentist that I have problems with lol

Sheila

Kept my eyes shut tight the whole time, from before I went in to when I came out. That way I had no idea how enclosed I was. I knew I had to do it there and then because I DID NOT want to go back for another arthrogram injection :(

I would have been exactly the same as you. Couldn't do it without some sort of heavy sedation. The pre meds they give you seem to do the trick for me, they get me acting a bit drunk.

I don't think it would be the size of the space with me, its more the can't get out, trapped feeling. I hate lifts but its not the size of the lift, its the trapped feeling they give me. Also even travelling in the back of a two door car, same again, can't get out. People have all sorts anxieties.

>am i the only wimp this has happened to

Not by a long chalk!

And telling someone to think of england, and all the good they do is not going to work when terror overcomes you.

I am one of the most focused, organised people that I know.  I have a great deal of willpower, and a very high pain threshold. 

When they had me in to go in the scanner 2 years ago, I was calm, and perfectly ready for it.  I genuinely had no idea that I wouldn't hack it.  I don't think I really and truly knew what hyperventilating meant.

I thought that I was going to have heart failure, they couldn't get me out quick enough.  You are not a wimp, and I totally sympathise.  They did tell me that there is never a day that goes by that this doesn't happen to at least a couple of people.

I've been in for 2 now. One for my neck and another for my brain(yes I do have one :-P)
The first time I kept moving, not that you have much room for that but i'm a fidget monger anyway.

The second time I closed my eyes and counted.. lol... Don't ask me why but that helped me get through it.. It was more boredom and not being allowed to move that got me..

Poor you, I've never had one and I've never felt claustrophobic, but for some reason they make me feel that way too, same as if I were ever in a crawl space tunnel. I'm pretty sure I would feel like you and completely panic, so don't beat yourself up, I just hope I never need to use one. I always thought maybe if you can imagine yourself on a beach lying in a deck chair or something it may help, but I guess it won't when you panic you panic.

Looks like you are not alone, pretty sure most of us would feel that way. :-( Shame they don't do relaxing,hypno type sessions just prior to using them for those of us who are not too keen.

I was absolutley dreading it ,whwn they told me it was a 45 minute scan , My freind advised closing my eyes vefore I went in ,I started counting very slowly thinking I would count to 6o fourty five times and by the time I had got to thirty times I really thought I would have to push the button and be brought out,the only thing that kept me in there was the thought I would have to do it again if I came out.
Anyway just as I had counted to 60 for the thirtieth time I was pulled out so I must have counted verrry slowly.
I think the fact they tell you not to move is the hardest for me and it was quite hot as well, its certainly not something I would like too do again.

i think i should have closed my eyes or used the eye mask as then i would never have known how small the space was. once i saw it that was it and i'd never go in it again, they will have to do a ct or similar instead