I recently had to have an MRI scan of my pelvis and they wanted my arms by my side but I was too wide so they had me put my arms above my head and they strap me down tightly with this thick thing that covers from my chest down to my knees. Once they were ready to start they put the emergency buzzer in my right hand, holding the cable, not the button because the button is extremely sensitive.

I've had a lot of MRIs in the past so I know the process, and how loud the machine is but regardless of that I always manage to fall asleep, but I brought a CD with me anyway.

The music starts to play whilst the machine kicks in, the usual noises start and I settle in. About 10 minutes in just as I started to doze off the bed part of the machine jolts forwards towards the scanner, I don't like it but they need to reposition me for the scan so whatever and then it happens again and again, I open my eyes and look up see the ceiling of the room slowly disappearing every few seconds as I'm jolted further into the machine.

As I moved further into the scanner the thing that they've used to strap me down gets tighter, I can feel it pressing harder against my chest and it keeps getting worse to the point where I can't breathe in fully. Not a problem, right? I have the buzzer in my hand, I can just push it. Nope, can't do that. I have arthritis in my shoulder and it locked up, I can't move my arm to press the button, I can't move the wire with my fingers to push it.

Now, what I'd neglected to mention to the radiologists and didn't consider it becoming a problem is that I have developed a pretty severe anxiety problem, I started having a panic attack.

I try to use all the methods I've been taught to control my anxiety and calm down whilst I use my left arm to reach for the buzzer, I can't feel for it but what I can feel is a weird warm, wetness running down my shoulder, my cannula which they put in to inject a contrast, had fallen out and I had blood spilling out of my arm. Of course this causes me to panic even more.

The 10 seconds it took the radiologists to see the blood and come in to pull me out felt like an hour. We didn't finish the scans that day and I don't think I'll be going back in an MRI scanner any time soon.