What to Expect from an MRI: a Family Guide

1.  Fasting: Some MRIs require you to fast (stop eating and drinking) the night before.  We recommend eating a healthy, filling dinner the night before and drinking plenty of water.  It helps if your MRI is scheduled first thing in the morning and luckily most centers give priority to kids for these early time slots so you won't be hungry too long.  Its also helpful to ask your family not to eat in front of you while you are fasting!

2. Leave Your Metal At Home:  MRIs have big magnets that will attract certain metal objects.  To be safe, remove all the metal from your body and leave it at home.  This includes jewelry, watches, and any removable dental appliances.  If your parents are coming into the MRI with you, they need to do the same.  Mom won't be happy about leaving her engagement ring in a hospital locker, so its best everything precious stay at home. Once at the MRI offices you and your parents will also be asked lots of questions about your medical history and any possible metal inside your body (orthodonture, orthopedic pins, staples, hearing aids, pacemakers, etc.)  As a final check you may also be screened by a metal detector to ensure nothing has been missed.

3.  Funny Pajamas:  Once you get to the MRI offices a nurse or assistant will probably ask you to put on some funny pajamas and socks.  If the offices are cold you may also want to ask for a blanket.  

4.  Drinking the Mix: To prepare for the MRI you may be asked to drink a mix of Miralax and Gatorade.  It doesn't taste great, but its not that bad either.  Its kind of hard to drink it all in the short time they give you and it may make you feel yucky.  It was easier to get down if we timed a few sips every minute.  

5. Lying Down on the Table: Usually, your mom and dad can stay in the room with you, so even if you can't seem them while you're lying down, you can still talk to them and know they are close by.  The nurse and/or technician will help you get on the table and show you the best position to lie in.  They may also put straps on your legs or waist to help you lie still.  After you are in the right position the nurse or technician will leave the room you're in and watch you from a special room with a window so they can see you. They will also be able to talk to you through a speaker  telling you when its ok to move and when its important to stay still. 

6. Plugging Your Ears:  The most surprising thing about an MRI is how LOUD it is.  It doesn't hurt at all, but it does make a whirring, chop chop chop sound a lot like a helicopter and sometimes like a fire alarm.  The noises can be so loud that the nurse will likely give you either earplugs or headphones.  The only problem with these is that it makes it hard to hear what other people are saying, but you get used to it. 

7: Getting the IV: During the MRI you may get a contrasting dye injected through your veins.  The dye helps the doctor see everything inside more clearly.  To prepare for this, the nurse may insert the tube in your arm ahead of time while you are waiting.  The nurse might rub a numbing cream on your arm so the needle prick doesn't hurt, but even if s/he doesn't it only pricks for a second and then she takes the needle out.  A little tube stays in your arm but it gets taped down and doesn't hurt.   In some people, the injection of the dye makes them feel sick to their stomach.  The feeling is intense and awful, but it usually passes quickly -- within 2-3 minutes.  The nurse gave me a plastic bowl in case I needed to throw up, but I ended up not needing it.

8.  Settling In:  The MRI can take a really long time.  Ours usually lasted 45-60 minutes.  I even fell asleep once! Its important to stay still when the machine is taking pictures so that you don't have to do them again. But if you do have to take some pictures again, its no big deal, it just takes a little longer.

9. When Its Over: Congratulations! When its over you will be relieved and also probably a little surprised that it wasn't as big a deal as you thought it would be.  You might even get a prize at the end for your bravery.  We got a stuffed animal and we got to keep our funny socks.  Now we wear the socks as a weird memento of our not-such-a-big-deal-MRIs.