More MRIs

[Jimd]

Today I had a checkup from my minor surgery from 2 weeks ago from when I had a lesion removed from the inside of my nostril. Everything with that is going well, it's healing.

I also had a hearing test today because I've been having trouble for years with my hearing. So at my wife's behest (and because I know that she's right), I finally got my hearing checked.

Well, I need to go for an MRI on Thursday. It seems I have some hearing loss in my right ear in a very specific range of hearing that they say indicates that I lost it during some type of trauma to the right side of my head.

They asked me if I recall any such kind of trauma, and one of the fights I was in on duty popped into my mind. I took quite a blow to the right side of my head, which caused some cervical/spinal injury. It looks as if maybe it also took out a chunk of my hearing.

They want the MRI of my brain on Thursday to see if, by any chance, there is a tumor growing near my auditory nerve, which might be pinching it, causing the hearing loss. It's basically to rule out the tumor theory. The physician's assistant reassured me that the tumor would be benign if there happens to be one (though I'm not sure how he'd know it would be benign).

So that's my latest situation.
The MRI that I had on my back a few weeks ago didn't really reveal very much, except that my disk space has grown closer and I have arthritis in my spine.

My wife bought me an inversion table so that I can hang upside down like a bat to stretch out my back. It has helped me dramatically; my back pain, while still present, has been hugely reduced. I still have some bad times, but it's not as bad as it was, and they are not as frequent.

I'm not real worried about my brain MRI, but I sure hope they don't find any tumor in there. That would kinda freak me out.

[jabba359]

Good luck, I hope that the brain MRI finds no problems.

[The Mastiff]

For the neck scans I have to be tranquilized. Sticking, or more realisticly stuffing me into that pipe that's about 2 inches from my face just freaks me out. I would rather face lions & tigers, and guys with guns than that small, enclosed space I'm not sure I could crawl out of due to my shoulder injuries & surgeries.

A 10 Mg Valium gets me to the point I can just stand it.

By the way, I have osteo arthritis and my spine is only one place it shows up. Good luck with it, and hopefully there's no tumors. Joe

[christopher]

I've had pretty close to a dozen MRI's of the brain (and one every two years since my surgery.) Not a problem, unless you're claustrophobic. If you have anything, please write me. I have the unique experience of having had three surgery's, a different type each time.

May they find nothing wrong,

Chris

[Jimd]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

[tonydahose]

hope everything goes well Jim, i have to try that inversion table, maybe it might help might back

[Water Bug]

Hope all goes well, Jim.

[Jimd]

hope everything goes well Jim, i have to try that inversion table, maybe it might help might back

Got mine from Amazon.com. It's the Ironman version. Cost $159.00, shipping was free. One of the best investments I've ever made.

[RJNC]

If you've had hearing loss for that long, it would presumably be benign. If it were malignant it would more than likely had metastasized by now, or at the very least had other issues associated with it. Are they doing the scan with contrast?

[Sequimite]

They want the MRI of my brain on Thursday to see if, by any chance, there is a tumor growing near my auditory nerve, which might be pinching it, causing the hearing loss. It's basically to rule out the tumor theory. The physician's assistant reassured me that the tumor would be benign if there happens to be one (though I'm not sure how he'd know it would be benign).

I have one of those tumors: 3.2 cm. You should also be having balance problems if it is an Acoustic Neuroma / Vestibular Schwanoma. Not to worry if that is the case, the treatments are very effective. Give me a holler if it is a tumor and I'll run through your options. Watch out for the neuro-surgeons that want to quickly do surgery, there is no urgency with these tumors.

[David Lowry]

Thinking of you today Jim as you have this done. Since I work in a hospital and I have a lot of interaction between our Radiology PACS system and MRI's and CT's and stuff I know what you will be having done.

When you read this it will probably be after the fact so I hope it went well.

Personally I like MRI's. They work sometimes on people with Anxiety or people that get Depressed.

What's really badass is that we got to go in with a crew from GE to fire up an MRI and test images out before it went "live". Dude, the nurses and tech's are throwing hand fulls of paper clips, metal pens, etc. From about 3 feet away (most times more) that stuff gets sucked right into the middle of the MRI tube.

What was really cool is I saw a demonstration as to how powerful the magnets are in those things. They took a piece of plywood and put it in front of the tube opening. They then turned on the MRI and they then threw a screw driver, a hamer, a metal desk stapler and a bunch of other stuff. It just all stuck to the plywood untili you turned the MRI off because it was being pulled into the center of the tube. We couldn't even pull the stapler off the plywood and had to just let it drop to the floor.

I also know someone that has a benign tumor in their brain and they have had it for about 10 years and are doing fine. It's too complicated to remove but it's not gotten any larger so they are leaving it.

You'll be fine brother Jim.

Dude feel free to call me anytime. Seriously. I'll send you my cell phone number again in an email.

'Course I'm gonna go sleep for a while as I just got done bringing up a data center that went down at 2:28AM and I've been working since then until 3:10PM today. Woohoo. Need about a 4 hour nap and I'll be back to "OK".

Later budd!

[Jimd]

Thanks for all the support, everyone! I really appreciate it.

Yep, I did have contrast injected. I actually almost fell asleep during the MRI; if the noise would have been more steady, I'd have been asleep.

For the first minute or two, I did have some claustrophobia, but I talked myself through that and then I was relaxed.

I'll find out the results some time next week. I haven't had any balance problems per se, and they're pretty much doubting that it's a tumor. They just want to rule out the possibility.

They're more sticking to the theory of some type of trauma to the side of my head. I suspect that I know which incident caused the trauma. We were subdueing a very large inmate and got into one hell of a knock-down, drag-out fight with the guy. Fist were flying, blood was flying, I did a flying tackle on the cretin and wound up getting socked in the side of my head by the officer I was assisting (it was an accident).

The blow glanced off the side of my head and continued travelling into the inmate's face, causing him to need eight stitches to put his face back together.

I know that my agency will not cover me on this; they automatically deny every medical claim. Oh, you can win eventually (sometimes), after spending thousands on attorney fees and a couple of years' time.

Anyhow, it's likely due to my service on duty that this happened. Another wonderful perk from my job! :mad:

[Jimd]

What was really cool is I saw a demonstration as to how powerful the magnets are in those things. They took a piece of plywood and put it in front of the tube opening. They then turned on the MRI and they then threw a screw driver, a hamer, a metal desk stapler and a bunch of other stuff. It just all stuck to the plywood untili you turned the MRI off because it was being pulled into the center of the tube. We couldn't even pull the stapler off the plywood and had to just let it drop to the floor.


It's interesting when we take inmates out to the hospitals for an MRI. Inmates who are shackled and handcuffed.