Latter at Russells Hall hospital, looking up at the massive clock face, in the atrium of a £160 million building; so like a section of the close by, Merry Hill, shopping mall; chopped off and dropped somewhere behind the main site.
We walked through a long corridor; wards and departments branching out from either side, to X-ray. A journey that felt like a cross between a hotel and a computer game.
Another right turn to 'ultra-sound', then we were lost.
Suffice to say everyone who wondered down the corridor didn't know if they were in the right place either. Now how could that have happened I wonder...
To tell you the truth I like the idea of being a 'secret patient' or rather, secret patient's relative or friend. The way information is given or assumed, fascinates me. I like the unspoken rules too, so when a man due to have an MRI scan was asked if he could possibly have any fragments of metal in his eye he misunderstood the 'class' of question and began to reminisce about all the places he had worked and various near misses; finally he asked "why do you need to know love" to be told that he was going to lie in a strong magnetic field..."So I'd get pulled to the side" was his half serious, half joke question The radiographer answered, "not really..." and continued to try to get him to understand that he would have to go to X-ray to check for metal fragments within his eyes before he could get into the scanner...
http://mrimetaldetector.com/blog/2009/03/mri-and-metal/
Wouldn't it have been easier to have explained this before he got to the MRI scanner and also to have put what happens to bits of metal inside the magnetic field of the scanner, in the opening question?
A few minutes latter a woman was practically chased down a corridor for not wearing shoes, "but you told me to get undressed and put on the gown" she said...Ah the difference between the 'wild, off the street patient' and the institutionalised ones who never answer back.
There were three waiting areas for patients waiting for ultra-sound and no way at all, other than asking staff (I asked two- the first gave me unnecessary and factually incorrect reassurance, the second redirected us to the correct place).
So I sat there thinking how this whole process could be made much easier and probably less stressful...and felt a little sad that I'd never got to play with an MRI scanner.
MRI scanners create massive magnetic fields....I don't want to frighten you but...
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| Picture from: http://simplyphysics.com/flying_objects.html |
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| MRI stool removal. |
