I’ve had PET Scans before, all good. They’re not a problem except that it’s always freezing. I had one today, so I went in and they injected me with the radioactive substance and I had to sit there for an hour without using my phone or doing anything really. I listened to an audio book.

After the time had passed, they took me in to the machine and I lay down. Then they started clipping me in and weighing me down by putting all these heavy cameras on my chest which I thought was weird, I’d never had that before. Then they wedged foam around my head so I couldn’t move it and clamped the cage over my face and I realised for some reason they were putting me back in the MRI machine.

I panicked. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, I started burning up. Why did no one tell me this PET Scan was actually an MRI? I immediately started trying to break out but I was weighed down. Instead of letting me out, he told me that it was all fine because he had a little mirror he would strap on my head so i could see out through a tiny rectangle. He then held that in front of my face and i couldn’t move or breathe or see anymore either.

I was hyperventilating, tears streaming down my face, trying to get out, they did take the cage off my face but they wouldn’t let me up. Instead they put a straw in my water and told me to drink. I choked on it.

Eventually they let me out. ‘I didn’t know it was going to be an MRI’, I told them. PET Scans had never been in an MRI machine before, why was it suddenly now? ‘Oh it’s a PET-MR’ they said like that should mean something to me.

Then I stressed out even more because this was a scan I needed to get done and I didn’t know how I was going to do it. But as it turns out, I didn’t need the MR part of the scan. We went upstairs and they put me on the PET-CT machine that I had used the previous two times. Apparently that’s fine.

It took me a good 10 minutes to calm down after the MRI scare. And any time I thought about it during the day I had to try and hold back tears.

I know it sounds silly. I had a panic attack just from being near an MRI machine. But it really terrified me. I couldn’t take it. According to the guy, it happens to one in five people. That’s more than I would have expected. He then told me he had a moment in the machine once and it’s tight but nothing to worry about. Great, thanks. This machine was even worse too because the far end was up against a wall. Not that it makes any difference once you’re in there, but knowing you’re going head first into a pringles container is even more scary than going into a toilet roll.

Yes, I think we can confirm I have a problem with MRIs.