This post is on the A Bigger Life website .
I have had a small bowel MRI before I had my ileostomy, but this was slightly different to what I remember. They gave me some scrubs to wear which were throw away ones and a bag for my items.
I still had to drink this mixture, but I have to admit it wasn’t nearly as awful to drink this time. It was almost water but with a tinge of something, maybe like a shot of bowel prep. I had a canula placed so that they could give me the contrast. I chatted to the nurses who were also very lovely and when I went outside the room to wait I heard one of the nurses/ HCA’s say ‘ What happens when they remove the large bowel? Does the end just hang?” it did amuse me and I wouldn’t have minded her asking me.
I did find the prep went straight through to my stoma very quickly and I found myself going to the toilet a lot with very watery output. In fact as soon as I had wiped the end of the bag, it ran out again like having a pee.
When it was time to go in for the MRI I did one last empty and mentioned to them that it was filling up quickly. They were great and said to let them know if I needed to go during the procedure.
They put two cage like appliances over me, which I thought I hope it doesn’t squash my bag too much and pop it.
I was hoping to have a little relax and maybe a snooze ( I know it is quite loud but you get kind of used to it) but to my dismay the machine kept asking me to hold my breath for about 30 seconds then breath for every scan.
The first bit was over with then it was time for the contrast to go into my arm, so I took the opportunity to ask if I could go and empty again. They didn’t seem to mind but it was a slight nuisance getting all the gear back off and on again after I had been. She was probably tutting in her mind.
It was some more “ Hold your breath…..now breathe” for about ten minutes and I was all done.
My stoma had had enough filling up I was pleased to see, so after I was dressed and in the car, I decided to do a bit of shopping, this could have been a slight mistake because my stoma decided it had more prep to get rid of, so I did a quick supermarket sweep whilst holding my bag to stop it bouncing around with the fluid like a water balloon, paid then drove home, went to the toilet, and relax.
