I don't know what the problem with MRIs is. I had two on my knee last year and fell asleep both times.
The first one showed I had avascular necrosis in the joint and the second one showed I was one of the lucky 20% to get through that without the joint collapsing which is a joint replacement job. I once had a patient who needed an MRI on her spine but she was too large to fit inside a normal MRI tunnel. We managed to get her an MRI at San Siro, not the football stadium but the next door horse racing track, where they have an outsize open MRI for examining horses.
Being of the larger persuasion I only just fitted into the infernal machine for a chest scan and the noise, despite the earplugs and bandages around the head was indescribeable. When your born with a medical condition (congenital heart disease in my case) you get used to being prodded, poked, strapped into things &c. from an early age. It was only the years of such training that prevented me fighting my way out of the thing. It turns out that apart from his crappy heart genes the other thing I inherited from my father was claustrophobia. Whether the pacemaker is a problem or not I won't be having another MRI whilst concious.
I haven't had a chance to explore the airport scanners yet, but I was told to wave my card at the security folk. The wife was terribly disappointed that her recent knee replacement didn't set the scanners off at Sydney. Heathrow, however got it's revenge on her return and she was dragged off for the full body treatment.
Paul
It's not a 'bird', it's an aeroplane or an aircraft
Update on Peter....He has had to go back into hospital to have some software changes to his pacemaker. Understand now back home & waiting to see if modifications OK.
Good luck Pete
Keith
Spoke to Pete yesterday and further tests required next week on a different part of his system. He hopes then that this will sort his problem out. Good luck Peter.
Keith
Once again, thank you all for your kind messages of support. As Keith (Dev One) has indicated things have not been going to plan and I was back in hospital again yesterday to have my pacemaker switched into a sort of standby mode. All its various functions have been turned off except for the basic safety net of stopping my heart dropping below 40 bpm, which it has a habit of doing, the idea being to try and isolate what's causing the problems.
I guess the hardest thing to deal with is not the feeling of being unwell all the time but the disappointment that a procedure that was expected to restore me to a normal life doesn't seem to have worked. Your posts have helped a great deal with this so once again thank you all for your good wishes.
Pete
I had two on my knee last year and fell asleep both times.
