Category: fMRI

Tuesday Tests

Darren LongLeave a comment

First was the SPECT Scan. This thing isn’t very exciting. First I got a shot of radioactive juice to light up my brain. Then, I laid on a table (and couldn’t move) for 30 minutes while a big flat imaging machine took a 3D picture of my brain. This was tons of fun. All this stuff took quite awhile to finish. My appointment started @ 2:00 and finished @ 3:30. Good thing, that’s right when I needed to get to the basement to do my next test.

The next one was the Functional MRI. This was different from any I’ve done before. If you’ve ever had a MRI, this is a step further. Can’t just sleep through this one. You have to actually do things while the MRI is running.

  • First the hand: Image of a hand or a hand with a line through it. Hand image, I had to tap my fingers to my thumb back and forth and the line through it meant take a break. Just the fingers, don’t move anything else.
  • Next is the foot: Foot image, move just the toes and not the foot. The image of the foot with a line, stop.
  • Then the lips (no, really): See the lips, pucker. See the line through them, relax.

The rest of the tests were “thinking” and not moving at all.

  • First is the single letter. A letter would show and I would have to think about saying (without saying or moving my lips) words that start with that letter. That letter would stay there for a few seconds, would relax for a couple and another come up.
  • Second was one where there was a sentence missing a word or words and I had to think about what the missing word or words. Now along with these, there were also sentences of gibberish letters and a word missing space. Those I was not supposed to think about anything. Sounded really easy when the guy was explaining it to me before I climbed in. But when the statements started going, they flashed fast! My mind wanders too much too. When I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about anything, I was thinking about my last answer. So….
  • Another was showing a single word and I had to think of a word that goes along with that word. Such as: I would see “juice” and then I think of “drink”. I see “car” and I think “drive”.

I think there had to have been one or two more, but that’s all I can remember with this brain of mine. I heard that the guy that reads the output and writes up the reports for the doctor does it pretty quick, as far as the MRI one goes.

Not quite what I thought…

Darren LongLeave a comment

Not the problem that I thought, which is a good thing. I went to the doctor on Friday and she said “no, a seizure is not what the problem is.” It is a side effect of an overdose of my medication. I have all these doctors that are working with me with all the same meds and I just need to get all my meds all worked out and equalized. Soooo I’m getting the one lowered that I have have too much of in my system. So it’ll take awhile to even it out to the level it should be. FOR NOW… I can barely stand up and walk normally. I seem to be drunk (I guess that’s how being drunk would be…)

I did get my two other tests set for June while I was there (at least a good thing was got out of this). Get another SPECT scan and the Functional MRI both set. Hopefully some other crap like this doesn’t happen that I need to blog about before then.

Next??

Darren Long1 Comment

One of the next tests is Functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) is an MRI procedure that measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.