02 March 2011

Claustrophobia tips, anyone?

Everything's relative, I suppose, but I was really happy this morning to find out that lotion and deodorant will not affect my MRI test tomorrow. And no fasting for me, yay! I'm still happy about it actually. Bonus: the place where I'm going for it called to remind me of my appointment and the woman I spoke to was really nice and answered my questions. So glad I didn't need to call my doctor's office to try to get my follow up questions answered.

Granted, I wouldn't have even thought about the lotion and deodorant if my mom hadn't mentioned it. Wasn't actually off the wall since the woman who initially called to set up the appointment told me not to wear makeup (no biggie, since I don't wear it anyway).

But to the real point: anyone have any tips for a slightly claustrophobic person who must endure a confined space?

I've read online that they can sedate you, but I really don't want to take anything. Yup, that's me, preferring the hard way.

I think I'll be all right with it, but I'm all game for tips if you have any.

I bet the sound will bother me more. Have some ear plugs I'm going to take with me. Wish it was going to be warmer tomorrow though, since my PJ bottoms are pretty thin. (Can't wear any metal.) Forecast is wind chill of -10, what the hell?! Ah well.

Anyway, in the unlikely event they discover something and decide they must do something about it right then, I may be offline for a bit. I think that's really unlikely because I just can't picture them having a neuro surgeon on hand at night.

In even more unlikely circumstances of my personality changing due to emergency surgery or me not coming back, I just wanted to say: I've appreciated your company and your support over the years. I.e., your friendship.

Again, I don't think I'll be whisked away to surgery tomorrow or anything so drastic, but I figured I'd cover my bases. You never know, y'know?


A year ago on TTaT: Sketchbook, page 7

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4 comments:

  1. I'm terribly claustrophobic, but here are a couple of things that you could try. Pick a body lotion or perfume that you find calming, but make sure it has a very light scent (that won't be overwhelming in a small space). Maybe even something like your nightime moisturizer that you associate with relaxing.

    If they don't need to you respond to directions while you're in there, see if you can wear some putty ear plugs. Cutting out the scary background noises might help fight the urge to flee.

    Good luck!

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  2. Thank you very much! Those are good suggestions.

    Mostly I think I just need to stay really still. I can be kind of jumpy with loud sounds though, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully ear plugs won't be a problem.

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  3. I can be similarly cover-the-scariest-bases when it comes to medical tests, but I feel confident you'll totally be blogging an update before you know it.

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  4. You were correct, Cheryl! It's already up. MRI as blog fodder, should've seen that coming. ;)

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