MRI for an eight year old

[Traveller]

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!

[Kmn]

Is he the kind of kid who will want to know what every noise is?
If he is, then:
His body is mostly water, and by watching the water in his body the radiographers can see pictures of the insides of his arm.

The tube is a big magnet - when water is in a big magnet the water starts to be able to pick up radio signals and "talk" to the radiographers and tell them how fast it is moving - blood will be moving fast, obviously, but even the water in things like muscles and nerves moves slowly. And differences in the speed of movement of the water are what is used to get the "picture". And it is so slow because they are taking hundreds of pictures to build up into a 3D image.

The big banging noises that he will hear are the switches that change the exact strength of the magnet, and also that send the radio signals - the strength that you need to detect fast moving water is different to that needed for slower water, so there will be lots and lots of switching bangs (every few seconds from memory). There are also noisy fans and noisy flows of fluid through hoses so that the switches don't overheat. And whirring noises from the bed moving.

[Traveller]

KMN that's awesome, thank you so much! I think that will really help him understand. His teacher has asked that he do a presentation to the class afterwards so that might help him too

[RhiChiChi]

KMN that's awesome, thank you so much! I think that will really help him understand. His teacher has asked that he do a presentation to the class afterwards so that might help him too

That is a great idea!

[Traveller]

The MRI went find today. He was quite happy and comfortable, no sedation needed. The only downside was he wanted to see the image and he was told he will have to wait until his outpatients appointment.

[HotI]

Great news, and now he has a good story for show and tell. Hope the results are good too.