Claustrophobia and an MRI scanner

I’m very claustrophobic, and I’ve been worrying all week about having an MRI scan.  I hope the following information is useful for anyone in the same position.

TLDR Quick verdict – it was fine.

My claustrophobia includes small lifts, spiral staircases in churches, zips getting jammed in tents, obviously caving – especially sumps (no way!), I’m OK on the underground and in airplanes, but not keen on houses / castles where low doorways lead to small rooms with more doorways into small rooms, and had a bit of a panic in a New York hotel where we were on the 35^th floor with a small room with a small window, and the one lift opened onto a tiny hall for just 4 rooms including ours, and motorbike helmets with fiddly chin strap releases.. Scuba diving also a no-no, though snorkelling on the surface is OK.  The back seat of small two door cars like minis is a potential panic situation. I worry about sticky bolts on toilet doors, checking them open and shut several times so I know they work.  …Anyway, if you relate to any of that you’ll know the feeling.

• You can ask to go and see it a few days beforehand and try it out, and see what’s involved, and see that it’s not too bad.  The hole was bigger than I expected.
• I was delighted to see that my head was half out.  This depends on what they are scanning (for me it was pelvis) and how tall you are (me, not very).
• The staff are incredibly nice – they get people in every day who are claustrophobic so they know how to help.
• The time went really quickly – I only had 15 minutes but I honestly don’t think 45 would have been any different.  They talk to you during it, saying “this next one lasts 2 minutes” and “This is the last one”.
• The noise seemed like nothing to me – you have earplugs and headphones, and it’s just a bit of clanking, very rhythmic, almost like drum and bass, and much quieter than the music I regularly listen to!
• You can have the radio on as well, though I could hardly hear it.
• Obviously you can’t feel the magnetism that is going through your body at all.
• You lie back on a comfortable bed with a pillow for your head and another one under your knees – it’s very comfortable. 
• There was enough space for me to scratch my nose – my arms were mostly down by my sides but could reach up to my nose no problem.  You have to lie still but there are breaks between each sequence of scanning.
• You wear a hospital gown – remember that the opening is at the back, with a couple of ties across the back!  And you keep your pants on underneath it.
• There’s a slightly heavy flat panel rested on your front, to help you keep still, and it is loosely strapped down to keep it from moving, but you don’t feel strapped in, it’s just like a comforting blanked resting on you.  Not a problem. 
• You can’t eat for 4 hours beforehand – but that’s not very long to be without food!
• Of course all these are only MY reactions – yours might be quite different, and I can’t guarantee anything, but I hope it’s encouraging for you that I was fine, when I have quite a bad case of claustrophobia (I must get some hypnosis or therapy for it sometime!)

• Ask to go in feet first, if you want.  I DID want that!!
• Tell the radiographers that you are claustrophobic, don’t hide it.  It’s common and it’s fine.
• Remember that nobody has ever been harmed or stuck in one of these scanners, keep telling yourself that – nobody, EVER!
• I got them to roll me in and then out again and then back in, so I knew what the rolling out felt like, and that it definitely worked (of course it did!)
• I asked them to be ready to roll me out really quickly at the end, since I felt that once it was over I’d really want to get out quick – and they did that.  But actually, by then I was used to it and wasn’t too bothered.
• I focussed on being in my happy place – in fact I alternated between lying on the beach, lying on the ground looking at the starts, and being by a Norwegian lake.
• I also focussed on the noises, counting the drum beats “1234 1234” and even imagining some tunes to go with it.  It really was like music, of a sort. Just to keep calm and forget I was in a tube I couldn’t get out of, and to try to almost enjoy the process.
• When it was over I felt fantastic!  I had done it!!!  Not much of an achievement for most people, but for me, a huge one.

I hope of these strategies are helpful for you too – after all, you don’t want to miss out on an MRI scan that could potentially save your life.