First MRI with InterStim and Pacemaker

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I had my first MRI with my MRI-friendly InterStim and Pacemaker yesterday (5/25/2023).

It was hard to get it scheduled because I had to have 3 appointments, one after the other at the same hospital. Here's how it went:

First, I had to have a chest x-ray to locate the Pacemaker and leads.

Second, I had to go to cardiology to have the Pacemaker tested. That's never any fun because of the irregular heartbeats it causes.

Third, I went to the basement where the MRI is located. They set my Pacemaker to a constant 85 beats per minute. I had to turn on my InterStimand set it to MRI-mode (turns the device off but saves the current settings).

Fourth, put my head in a vice and get the MRI.

Fifth, they the Pacemaker reset to it's normal setting, and I turned my InterStim back on.

The MRI was the final scan to see what is causing my headaches. Thank God, the only thing found was the micro vessels of the white matter show normal aging; no tumors or bleeds. Unfortunately, there are no solutions for the headaches. At least they are not bad. I can knock them down with half of an acetaminophen pill.

Anyway, that's what you can expect if you need an MRI and have the stimulators.

 

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I am glad not to have gone through any of that. Just Sorry you had to. Glad you had good news, though. BTW, I also deal with headaches and no medications work- I have discovered that tea sometimes relieves the pain , and sometimes ice cream does the trick. Guess which one I try first.

 

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@MezaJarJarBinks, they put you through a lot more than I had to do when I had a lower back MRI on April 10 this year.

Here's what I went through:

I went to the hospital that did the MRI and was taken to a room where I changed into a typical hospital gown.

I then was taken to the MRI room. The man who ran the machine was familiar with how to power the Interstim device off. He then put me in the "don't-move-a-millimeter-position." I took him 30 minutes from the start to the end.

He told me he had to go more slowly after about 20 minutes because he could tell the battery was getting warm. He asked if I could feel that and I told him I could not.

Back in November, I had an MRI of my brain at a different site by a different technician, and once he confirmed that Medtronic agreed that the serial number was indeed one for my MRI-compatible device.

I guess this shows how things can be done differently depending on the protocols of local hospitals or scanning centers.

Happy to hear from you that nothing serious was found. The white matter was described to me as "white matter disease"
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BTW, for those interested in "white matter disease", WebMD describes it here:clickable text

In short, it's typically part of the aging process in the brain.

 

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@jeffswet

You may have heard that some headaches are caused by allergies.

When I was about 25 y/o I started getting very severe migraine headaches. At the time, I was being treated for seasonal, air borne allergies by an allergy specialist who was also a researcher and teacher regarding allergies. I read one of his books, and there was a chapter that listed a bunch of foods that were found to cause headaches. It went on to suggest that the patient should try to stop eating every food in the list and wait until the headaches were gone. Then, one-by-one, reintroduce each food or ingredient until the headaches return. I found that anything containing corn products or bananas could trigger a headache. My other allergies also caused headaches, so eating corn or bananas would make them worse.

I'm sure the list of trigger foods has changed over all this time, so maybe you could do some research regarding allergies.

My most severe headaches only occurred on the weekends when I was not under any stress. But eventually those disappeared, and I have been free of them until now. The onset of my mild headaches is strange in that they happen EVERY day, and they can happen at any time of the day or night. Also strange is that all I need to take is half of an acetaminophen pill (250 mg.). Whereas the severe migraines required prescription Midren (no longer available) or Fioicet (butalbital/acetaminophen/caffeine).

@jeffswet , I pray you can find something that works for you. I fear headache pain more than any of the other pain that I suffer from.

 

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@fleemoore ,

Thank you for the link to WebMD for "White Matter Disease". It was very helpful, and I certainly have some of the symptoms mentioned in the paper. For example, my handwriting has been getting worse with time and even my signature is nothing like it used to be. Balance is getting worse too. It was interesting to see urine leakage in the list too.

Getting old is no fun!

 

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Many headaches come from disc/vertebrae damage in the neck. They are also side effects from many medications. I have a daily headache by 6:00 p.m., especially if I work at a computer all day. I know Cymbalta and Adderall give me headaches. Stopping Cymbalta hurts worse than when I cracked my forehead 3.5” across and woke up from a coma. But even without those meds, the damage in my C-spine causes daily headaches.

 

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@jeffswet

You may have heard that some headaches are caused by allergies.

When I was about 25 y/o I started getting very severe migraine headaches. At the time, I was being treated for seasonal, air borne allergies by an allergy specialist who was also a researcher and teacher regarding allergies. I read one of his books, and there was a chapter that listed a bunch of foods that were found to cause headaches. It went on to suggest that the patient should try to stop eating every food in the list and wait until the headaches were gone. Then, one-by-one, reintroduce each food or ingredient until the headaches return. I found that anything containing corn products or bananas could trigger a headache. My other allergies also caused headaches, so eating corn or bananas would make them worse.

I'm sure the list of trigger foods has changed over all this time, so maybe you could do some research regarding allergies.

My most severe headaches only occurred on the weekends when I was not under any stress. But eventually those disappeared, and I have been free of them until now. The onset of my mild headaches is strange in that they happen EVERY day, and they can happen at any time of the day or night. Also strange is that all I need to take is half of an acetaminophen pill (250 mg.). Whereas the severe migraines required prescription Midren (no longer available) or Fioicet (butalbital/acetaminophen/caffeine).

@jeffswet , I pray you can find something that works for you. I fear headache pain more than any of the other pain that I suffer from.

 

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Thanks for this. I don't know how I missed it back when you posted it.

 

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All this headache testing was over a year ago.

I was notified months ago that they had found no glaring cause for the headaches. Then I had a video visit with my doctor. She confirmed that again and said that there was no reason for me to come back. She also had provided a list of Rx meds I could try, but I'm not doing that unless it really gets worse.

 

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All this headache testing was over a year ago.

I was notified months ago that they had found no glaring cause for the headaches. Then I had a video visit with my doctor. She confirmed that again and said that there was no reason for me to come back. She also had provided a list of Rx meds I could try, but

 

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Double posted again! Weird.

 

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Good news is always good to hear twice.