After my rant after my last (failed) MRI, I’m pleased to say it all went really well yesterday, and the staff at UCLH were great. I even managed to get to cashiers and get my money back for the train tickets for the last trip.
The two radiographers were brilliant, particularly the bloke who was leading it, whose name I unfortunately forgot almost as soon as he told me as I was already well under the influence of the medication by then. They took their time to get me positioned, make sure I was as comfortable as possible, and checked on me several times during the imaging. They had lots of pillows and assorted padding etc to put under and around me, and were very careful with placing the pads across my back which would help with improving the imaging.
There were a couple of studies they had to redo because I’d moved a bit, but it was great to know that they were checking things as they went. I spoke to them after and they said the images were much better than before, but would never be perfect being done prone because, even though I was shallow breathing as requested, the body still naturally rises and falls a bit when you breathe in and out on your stomach.
The next step is to see the consultant in the middle of September and see what he thinks can be done.
The less good part of yesterday was the journey back. We had booked first class tickets to get more room, but when we got on the train, only a few coaches had working air con, and ours wasn’t one of them. It was almost unbearably hot. The train was late leaving as well, and part way back the morphine had worn off and I was really starting to feel the effects of the day. In fact I eventually took another dose of morphine.