MRI #1

On Monday I had my first breast MRI since discovering I am a BRCA2 gene carrier.

I had checked in with a few people before getting this done and was given practical and funny advice on what to expect. My favorite was from someone who's been dealing with this for the past six years and said, "It’s the closest thing I can imagine to being in a spaceship."

Despite getting myself mentally prepared by talking with a few "experts", I was completely unprepared for the noise. And someone probably told me it was loud, but it didn't stick, and so I was surprised when I finally got all settled in for the MRI and was jarred and stunned by the intensity (and annoyance) of the noise.

I showed up at 745am to fill out paperwork for my 8am appointment and was brought back to change and get started at the time my appointment was scheduled to begin. As if that weren't enough, I had a wonderful technician who prepped me for the MRI and walked me through what she'd be doing. She put me at ease and made me feel very comfortable through an uncomfortable process.

After being all settled in, I was given the choice of listening to classical music or oldies. I went with oldies because they reminded me of my dad, and classical music is so not my thing. And off I went.

The duration of the tests were 15 seconds, 1 1/2 minutes, 4 minutes and then the longest and last one was for 8 minutes. 2 minutes into the last test, it was stopped so they could do the contrast (which feels super weird, by the way). They had to put an IV in my hand, so when they released the contrast, it felt like liquid was being poured all over my hand. (It wasn't).

I got up and felt a little woozy. On top of being in a weird position for nearly 35 minutes (there's a lot of down time between tests), I've been sick again with some weird cold. But more than anything, I was grateful for having survived my first breast MRI.

Upon leaving, I definitely felt like this was something I could absolutely handle once a year.

Next up: Results