"An MRI scan, a week into the Coronavirus…"

My scan was schedued for 9 in the evening on a Friday... one of the plus points of the Coronavirus pandemic was that no one wanted to go to hospital! So I got a call at half four - would I like to come on over? I did. The place was empty... so I was whizzed through in short-order - I think everybody wanted to go home! If you have never had an MR scan and are a bit nervous, don't be. After your greeter runs through a simple q'aire with you, you are asked to removed any garment or item with metal on it, so you can aid the process by choosing to wear things that don't have any metal in them in the first place. They were cool with the metal buttons on my trousers, but I had to lose the belt.

All you have to do is get on the bed, wait till it gently slides you into the doughnut and then just lie there. As the staff will tell you, several times, it *is* a bit noisy, but what noise there is, is fairly consistant so its not like there are sudden bangs and crashes. You have big earphones on too, which do two things, first they reduce the noise - they play pop radio in the background through the 'phones and secondly the staff will talk to you through them, if they need to. You also have an alarm squeezy thing if you want a break. My scan took less than twenty minutes. I've definitely been to noisier gigs...

All in all, a simple, painless process.