Life With Chronic Pain

Last week at a routine doctors appointment.  I had blood drawn for routine tests.  A few days later I got a very worried call from my doctors nurse.  She asked me how my pain and nausea was.  I had been feeling pretty bad, but not much different than normal.  She then told me that my pancreatic enzymes, Lipase and Amylase, were very highly elevated.  My doctor quickly scheduled me to have an MRCP done.  A MRCP is an MRI that specifically looks at the biliary ducts, pancrease, and liver.  They wanted to check if my pancreas was enflamed or if one of the biliary ducts was blocked.

I went in for the MRCP at 7:30 this morning.  I have had several MRI’s in the past so I thought I knew what to expect.   As the nurse was checking me in she asked me the standard questions.  Do you have any metal objects in your body…no.  Have you ever had metal removed from your eye…no.  Finally, she asked if I was claustrophobic.  I had never had a problem with claustrophobia in the past, but I was about to have a rude awakening.

After the nurse was done checking me in a tech told me that I had been scheduled in the mobile MRI machine.  This is basically a big trailer with an MRI machine, generator, and computers.  When I walked into the trailer and looked at the MRI machine my heart stopped.  The tube was tiny.  I asked the tech and she told me that this was the last of the hospitals original MRI machines.   She then told me that I had probably been in open MRI’s in the past.

I changed into the gown and laid on the table.  As they slid me into the tube my heart began to race.  I am a pretty small person, but it was very tight inside the machine.  I closed my eyes and took deep breaths.  About 30 minutes into the test the tech came into the room and told me there had been an error with the computer and they were going to have to start over.  That is when I freaked out.  I told her “Get me out of here now!”  I jumped off the table and went outside to try and quell my nerves.  After about 15 minutes I went back inside the trailer and was able to finish the test.