although (and I am saying this quietly) he has had a tingle tonight which was close to his thumb area which would mean the nerve is recovering finally and no MRI would be necessary
His whole person will have to go in the tube - the bit that does the measuring is only the middle part of the cylinder. It's really important that he understands that the machine has special "eyes" that can see through people to their insides. I remember as a kid thinking that the only way they were going to get pictures of my bones was to put holes in me to see them, and that wasn't a reassuring option.
Can you find a youtube video of an MRI machine or at least show him some pictures such as this one: http://www.mbi.monash.edu.au/facilities/cmri.html and explain what happens - it will be noisy, you will not be able to see very much because you will be in the tube, and you have to stay really still so the machine can see. The bed moves you through the tube - you don't have to move you.
Can you ask if he gets to choose his music and if he does help him do that.
i had mri s from around 9 years and never needed sedation. you know your kid best, i would avoid sedation if possible.
there is a mirror above your head that you can kinda see out the end. you can pick music/video but you can't hear it that well when the mri starts anyway.
Thanks for the link KMN, I think that will really help
HotI, it's really reassuring to know you were ok with it. I would like to avoid sedation if possible and given the number of x-rays he has had recently I think he will be ok with the concept. I think I'm just panicking a little as I get claustrophobic but I need to remember that he is not me
I spoke to on e of my nursing tutors today who said they will not offer him sedation and he would recommend not giving him anything because if he is spaced out then the noises might be scarier. I am a bit panicked now because I was told it would be in 2 - 3 weeks but instead we got a phone call saying it's tomorrow!
2nd MRI done today and we got a bit more detail about why it was needed. The last MRI did the entire arm from shoulder to wrist and ruled out problems everywhere apart from at the break, which needs more defined images. They tried to do these images last time but a) DS1 was moving a bit and b) the doctors didn't think it was really necessary as they were convinced the MRI would show the nerve far enough away from the break to rule out a problem. So hopefully we will have answers one way or the other in the next week or so.
DS1 was great during the MRI, he's very used to all these medical procedures now and takes it all in his stride.
The MRI has shown the break in good detail and it looks like the nerve is not trapped in the break. That's the good news. The bad news is they have run out of ideas about why his nerve is not functioning so they want to wait a bit longer in the hope of spontaneous recovery before they operate.
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