Fetal MRI

If you've never had an MRI, it's a fairly terrifying experience in and of itself. Even more so when you're 21 weeks pregnant with twins and claustrophobic. I had previously had one MRI to check on the discs in my neck due to pain for a chiropractic visit. The chiropractor refused (as any good chiro should) to do any real work on my painful neck until she could see just what was going on. I believe that MRI lasted about 20 minutes and I cried through the whole thing.

My MRI ended up being scheduled for 1 p.m. on a Friday. We were told to come to the hospital an hour early and check in at the front desk. We were brought into an office to discuss financials (we have excellent insurance luckily, so there wasn't much to discuss) and then were sent on our way to the radiology department. Mike and Zachary were with me. They set up camp in the children's waiting room within the Radiology department where Zachary contented himself eating fruit from the hospital cafeteria and watching Disney Junior.

The technician came and got me, explaining that it would likely be about an hour long procedure depending on how well the babies cooperated, and then we would be on our way.

I was placed in the tube and it started. The only thing I remember was that it felt like it took forever. And I was truly worried that he fully intended on keeping me in this tiny tube until I gave birth. I had a ball in my hand that was wired to the room he was in, so that in the event that I panicked, I could squeeze that and he would let me out. My entire body went numb. At one point I opened my eyes and the tube was so close to my face that I almost squeezed the ball. I knew, though, that if he brought me out, I would refuse to go back in, so instead, I closed my eyes and started picking a boy name and girl name from every letter of the alphabet to keep my mind off what was happening.

MRIs are loud, also. Terribly loud. There was a machine somewhere in the room making a chirping noise. When the MRI would quiet down, I would hear the chirping. In my mind I pretended I was outside, laying in the grass listening to the birds chirp. At one point, the technician got on and said he was having some trouble getting pictures because the babies were moving a lot. He told me to hang on, he was going to take the pictures to the Radiologist and see if what they had was good enough.

I waited for what seemed like another eternity. He came back and said, "Sorry, let me try a couple more things and then I promise I'll be done." I wanted to cry. Instead I just said "OK" and started breathing again.

Finally, FINALLY, I felt the table start to pull out from inside the tube of terror and I heard him come back into the room. He handed me my glasses and helped me sit up. He said, "Wow you're a trooper! Let me take you back to your locker." Then I was done. Back to the waiting room where Mike was sitting, slightly panicked. I had been in the machine for over 2 hours. Over. 2. Hours.

Mike handed me Zachary and dashed off to work. Now we had nothing to do but wait for the results.