Why Not To Wear Metal During An MRI

Why you DO NOT wear metal into a MRI machine!

What is an MRI??



So growing up I've always had back problems, and I've gone to probably over a dozen chiropractors for them. I've always been a very athletic person all through high school and even after I've gone on to college.  I played basketball, soccer and ran a lot in my free time which most chiropractors say is the root of all a lot of my back problems.  Last summer I tore my acl and meniscus in my left knee playing softball, in which I had to get surgery done to repair it.  Was differently a bummer deal, I've never had surgery before and has put a huge dent on my athletics.  My left knee just hasn't been then same since the surgery, and now in fact I find myself when standing putting my weight on my right side. Two weeks ago on Saturday morning I woke up and felt my feet kind of having a tingly feeling in them, but really didn't think much of it.   As the day progressed into night it got worse and worse.  My feet felt like they still had the numb feeling to them but when I moved them they had a prickly sensation to them which the numb feeling continued up my legs and especially on my left side it was more prominent.  I had a very had time walking the first 3 or 4 days of this numbness.  It felt like I was helplessly drunk trying to walk with "prickly" numb feet, its a horrible feeling.  I ended up going to the ER the 3rd night of it because this had never happen to me before and I was scared that something was differently wrong.  Ended up the ER found nothing sick wise wrong with me, but all 3 doctors that I went to were sure it was a pinched nerve in my back and I was instructed to get an MRI.  EH! An MRI!  And this is were our story begins.....

So what actually is an MRI?  An MRI or magnetic resonance imaging, is the use of a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to produce high electronic images of specific atoms and molecular structures in solids, especially human cells, soft tissues, and organs.   MRI is ideal for diagnosing multiple sclerosis, tumors, brain infections, torn ligaments, shoulder injuries, bone tumors, cysts or even strokes in their earliest stages.  Conditions that may be apparent from physical signs and symptoms may be clearly seen, providing better information to determine appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Meaning if you have a Torin ligament, cartilage or in my care nerve damage it can only be seen using MRI images.  X rays only posses the ability to view photos of bone or very hard tissue which is hard to make prognoses for soft tissue. 

When taking a MRI the patient comes into the room where the machine is.  The patient is instructed to have NO METAL on of any kind. When you are actually ready to have the MRI you will be asked to lie down on what is kind of like a long metal tray board attached to the long cylinder MRI machine. Depending on the part of the body to be scanned - you might or might not have your head inside the cylinder.  This becomes an issue for many people (including myself) who are claustrophobic seeing the inside cylinder is probably 2 to 3 feet around width wise and maybe 5 ft in length.  Which gets pretty tight, and the best way I can describe is is being pushed into a coffin. 

From there when you are placed in a MRI machine you will hear a variety of noises. I always relate these noises to men breaking up cement with those very noisy drills. These noises although very annoying to you, are very necessary for achieving a reading on the MRI scan. While you are in the machine and being scanned you need to lay very still. You can not move. If you move you will ruin the image or picture the technician is taking and it will have to be repeated.  And trust me you do not want to have to be in this machine any more time then you need to be, so my advice LYE VERY VERY STILL!  The whole process does not hurt you,  It is a non-invasive test. The only thing it will do is annoy you with the loud noise it makes through out the test. And I don't know about other people but I can feel sort of feeling as if I was in between two gigantic magnets fields pulling.

The best way in which I keep clam is to keep my eyes tightly closed and never open them while I'm inside the canister. That's the best way I think to get Thu it.  Sometimes they have ear phones you can listen to, which the previous MRI I had to do did.  If you are really claustrophobic you need to inform your ordering doctor about this fact. A sedative will be arranged for you to take before you reach the MRI Center. Always bring someone with you to drive and make sure you get home safely if you have taken a drug.  There are some open MRI machines and these are especially useful for people who are claustrophobic. I was just recently told by an MRI technician, although people prefer the open MRI machines, they are not as accurate in the testing results as the enclosed MRI machine. Which in fact I got to use one of the open machines to do my last MRI in, it helped more in the claustrophobic but I still had it.  The sides of the machine were open.  The best way I can put it is looking like a huge hamburger and you being slide in between the two buns.

MRIs have changed a lot from when they were first done On July 3, 1977.  It took almost five hours to produce one image. The images were, by today's standards, quite ugly.  Now a days it takes ruffly 35 minutes to an hour to take multiple images and complete the whole process.  I don't know if you couldn't get my take on MRI's but I am totally not a fan of them.  I get totally stressed out over the whole or deal and especially when they put me on the table and I look at the coffin looking hole there about to stick me into for an hour.  I start feeling my heart beating that its about to jump out of my chest, sweating horribly.  At the same time I know that if I don't do it, the problem I have going on with my feet and legs aren't going to get fixed and it a vital that I get the images done. This is now my 3rd MRI I've had to do.  First one was because I was in a car wreck for my back, 2nd was for when I tore my ACL which I acutally didn't have to go all the way into the MRI machine just my feet did.  And now this time for my numbness in the lower half of my body.  If you are ever in the situation that you have to have an MRI done I hope this short piece has answered a few questions and makes you prepared for whats in store for you.

 Photo of an open MRI

Blog #3-How the MRI works

Johnny Depp Dancing - Alice In Wonderland

One of the best parts of the new Alice in Wonderland movie 2010~!
Futterwhacken dance

Alice in Wonderland (1903)

Blog #2 Movie Review- Alice in Wonderland

The movie that I choose to do my movie review on was Alice in Wonderland.  The genre of this movie is adventure, family, and fantasy.  And anyone that has been around for awhile would also know that this is a remake, in fact a remake of several different Alice In Wonderlands. The original Alice in Wonderland or Alice Adventures in Wonderland, was made in 1903 almost 100 years ago. All the Alice in Wonderlands follow about the same story line, a girl who follows a white rabbit into a magical world. This Alice, although follows about the same story line, has a very big twist on  imaginative twist on the beloved story.  The genre of adventure and fantasy I believe visually are held up by Disney in this movie to be stunning if not anything are enough to attract people of all ages to this movie.  Costumes that are used and the animations I think are brilliant.  The biggest attraction I think people had to this movie was having Johnny Depp as one of the main characters, The mad hatter.  He made the movie entertaining and adventurous.

The first Alice in Wonderland's were originally called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Much of the film and play incorporate both novels together as one. The first book has a game of cards theme, and the second a game of chess. These are touched on in the new version on Alice where the Red Queen has her soldiers as decks of cards and the White Queen has pawn pieces. The most unalike common theme, is that Wonderland is taken over by the Red Queen, and Alice is the heroine, this never happens in the novels. But this isn't where the differences end between novel & film. The character's themselves have interesting meanings behind them.  In both novels Alice is 7 years old, but a smart and adventurous child that acts beyond her years. In Disney's animated version she's older around 12 or 13 or so. In the more recent film, she's 19, and now dealing with the threat of an engagement.
As for the movie having being a remake of course there was going to be already pre-expectations about the it. And for the mere fact the movie being made by Walt Disney which is leader in family oriented, children friendly animated films.  I think viewers expected the movie to be more geared toward a childerns genre of movie.  Where I think this Alice in Wonderland had a little darker and a little closer to the Middle of Kingdom and "Narnia"-style movies, in which a good queen has been replaced by an evil one.  I differently think with director Tim Burton use of characters such as Johnny Depp as mad hatter, Anne Hathaway as the white queen, Helena Carter as the red queen, and Alan Rickman as the blue caterpillar. I believe the director had more of an adult audience in mind where there is differently more violence in this Alice. In the film we encounter a skewered eyeball, bobbing heads, and Alice has to slay the jabberwalky and drink its blood in order to return back home.


This Alice in Wonderland is different right from the beginning with the 19 year old Alice, a girl who’s facing the possibility of being married off to a man she doesn’t love and on the verge of enduring a life she really doesn’t want. As she runs off to consider the proposal, she falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland. However, on her entrance to Wonderland, she finds she has a destiny to fulfill in which she must free the land from the Red Queen and restore happiness to the land she visited as a child in her dreams.
But with the Red Queen on the war path, and the evil Jabberwocky to be unleashed, it looks like Alice really has her work cut out.

I personally liked the movie, but it took me a few times to watch it before I understood it completely.  There was some parts of the movie that was kind of a blur as to what was going on.  The characters, costumes, and animates were all really good.  I personally love Johnny Depp and he made the movie an advent full one. The Hatter is indeed mad, his orange hair, stained hands and eyes are evident of that, his eyes often changing color when his mood goes into a more insane demeanor. For more about the movie check out Disneys site on the movie....
http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/aliceinwonderland/

Camo and lace

(First off I hope i'm doing this right for english class)
So I just recently moved back home to Michigan from Gillette, Wyoming. I moved out to Gillette, Wyoming back in May of 2008. We went out to find work but at the same time I've always been one to travel, see new things, and always have wanted to move away from home. I LOVE horses and cowboys so I was ready to go. Its been a long 2 1/2 years out there. I've been in so many different situations I would of never thought i'd be in.  I've became so much more independent from the last time I was home.  I've had a lot of good things happen there....and on the down side a lot of bad things happen, but have learned a lot.  One of the best things that happened in Wyoming was that I learned to to hunt and grow an obsession for it.  And not just hunt squirrels and jack rabbits.  But big game animals such as antelope, mule deer, elk and moose. Hunting to me is a very intimidating sport....well at least I use to think so. : )

Hunting is a sport that has been very much dominated by males in history, its not until recent years have you found females that have taken an interest in hunting.  Even if you date back to the cave man days, frontier days, and even early 1900's.  It was always thought as the mans role to be the provider, hunter/ gather and the woman's role to be the care taker/ house wife.  I think a lot of women never really took any interest in it because of this.   Before I moved out to Wyoming I always wanted to learn to hunt.  My grandpa hunt, my dad hunt, and of course they taught my brother to hunt but none of them ever taught me. It was never something that my grandma or mom ever taught me to do.  I learned to cook, sew, play the piano, shop and garden from them.  As I had mentioned before as I grew up hunting was always thought as a mans sport, and something woman didn't desire to do. In which I did but was extremely intimidating to learn from a male figure. If it had been for my mom deciding to show me it would of been a different story.  Maybe not in every situation but I think most woman would be more apt to want to learn to hunt if it was another female that was teaching them instead of a male, I didn't get that lucky but I'm happy for the opportunity I did get to learn.

Anyways, back to my story, in Wyoming I ended up dating a guy that was a serious hunter.  Him knowing I had an interest in hunting he, not necessarily took the time to teach me how to hunt, because he wasn't the best teacher, but he did show me how to. I loved it! It wasn't necessarily the easiest thing learning from your boyfriend first off, we would constantly get into fights. Plus trying to learn something and not wanting to look like an idiot in front of your boyfriend wasn't always the easiest. I remember the first time I shot an animal and had to clean it myself!  I had no clue what I was doing, and he was trying to tell me how it was done, and it ended up being a huge argument. This is a big reason I think a woman teaching a woman to hunt would be a lot easier.  I've very much a believer in woman's independence.  That a woman can do anything a man can do (obviously in means). But I believe hunting to just be another one of those things that women shouldn't find intimidating, or afraid to do because it has been done mostly by men.  And with more women these days learning to hunt and taking an interest in it, it will only benefit our future daughters to be more independent.

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While out west it seemed that more woman took an interest in hunting, I guess it was just more part of the way of life out there with a variety of big game animals. Plus with hunting channels having shows with women host are promoting more female involvement in hunting.  Here in Michigan I find less woman involved in hunting, but I find its not because they're not interested in it they just haven't been taught.  Its somewhat of a goal of mine I would like to someday start my own line of hunting wear for women and possibly even a program in which women are teaching other women to hunt.  There are some programs going on that have started this but I'm talking on more of local scale for the surround area. A good place to start finding information for woman hunting is the NRA's Women's Program NRA Womens Hunting Program

....or you could just come talk to me :)