I had two MRIs in a row on the 10th of Febuary 2008. I had to go in on a Sunday because the place I recieved my MRIs is heavily booked due to the fact it is a military base. I have had MRIs before and have felt very little if any effect from them the pulsating and vibration, dull noise ect. This time was different as soon as it got past the intial picture I felt like my face was being pushed out from the inside out. My throat was feeling like there was a pressure on it which I contributed to something going on inside my head. I actually asked the tech to stop because I was getting freaked out he came back in the room and said that unless I felt pain it was fine. He exited to continue the scan. My first scan was of my spine and I could feel the places they were scanning. I don't know if it's because I've gained weight and ther was more interference than the last one or what but it felt like someone was laying a rope on me and then draging it toward my feet, again and again. That scan was over and they brought me out to reposition me for the next scan , My knee. When they started my knee it felt fine and as they progressed I could again feel the sensation within my leg being scanned. All ot the suden the are of my knee wher it had been found a couple of months earlier the was a piece of loose bone, the reason for the MRI, began pulsating moving out and then in again and again I thought for sure this was in my head that I must be tripping out and so I dismissed it as Another mind game. Throughout the whole MRI I was completely still. I relayed my experiences to the doctor and tech who said that I was nort supposed to feel the test. I told them the facial sensations I believed to be because of fillings and that the knee movement I wasn't sure about. I asked if some people are more sensative to these tests or if I was just crazy. Theyy admitted others sometimes report strange sensations but agreed the knee movement was probbally in my head. I went for the results not so great for the back, buldged disk nerve intrution as suspected, and then on to the knee. While they did find the piece or loose matter they said that there where some torn tendons and that there is some cartialage damage. Now the fun part the radiologist or MRI Doc noted that it was hard to read because all the movement, I know I was perfectly still and I guess now I know I am not crazy. Also because of having two in a row I was the pround owner of something called RF burns. Turns out that a microwave and a MRI are not so different. Both use foucused RF waves and penetrate the item at different levels, which the return feed of is how the get a picture, aparently each type of tissue sends off different frequency of waives and by catching them back like radar the see inside, the big thing they put around the scanned are is like an antenna. Anyway felt like crap for a while and had the RF burns{ equivalent to a mild sunburn} for about a day and then it was over. Leaving me with nothing more than my memories

Hello,,,I have had quite a few MRI's , 2 of my back and one of the brain. All three times, I have felt the "sensations" you all speak of. Considering what an MRI is and what it really is doing to your body makes perfect sense to feel something. The MRI machine itself has more than twice the magnetic field of the earth! It's really powerful and forces hydrogen and electron molecules in your body out of their natural orbit and in alignment with the machine....probably what makes us feel so odd and out of sorts for brief periods. I don't think its anything to worry about.Although, my heart races uncontrollably with anxiety when i'm in the tube, I know that its just the effects of a loud noisy magnet playing iwth my magnetic field!!

We'll be okay guys!!

Hi, was doing a search on MRI side effect  and read all your comments.  Im wondering about the difference between MRI for health check-up and a mind reading machine that the government use for monitoring human brain. Some says that the mind reading machine is similar to MRI also..Do you know that the mind reading machine really does exist?  We have a neighbor here in Jakarta Indonesia and their house is being monitored by the government. There is a mounted machine on the next neighbors wall to read the mind. The side effect of this mind reading machine I think is even worsed than the ussual MRI that people use for check-up.  I heard that the machine on this neighbor works non-stop. Do you think other neighbors could be affected? Where do you think we can report  this? Because this machine could be hazardous to human health..

I had an mri this morning on my brain, I didnt like it at all, when it was finished I could hardly get off the bed, I felt so dizzy,shakeing and feeling sick.  That was 8 hours ago and I still feel very ill. Hope to feel better tomorrow. Nobody in the hospital told me I would feel so ill.

I am interested in all the reports of sensations experienced with an mri. I just had my first one a few days ago on my brain. I had been having lots of crazy-sounding symptoms so they were looking for a pituitary tumor.  I felt fine throughout... they didn't do the enhanced version... it only took about 10 minutes. But most of my symptoms went away for a few days and are now slowly coming back. I actually felt better than I have in quite awhile. Any ideas?

I don't want to mention it to my doc, because it took so long for her to take my symptoms seriously in the first place.

Relieving to have found this site: happy 35th birthday to me: had my first brain MRI just two hours ago and all of you have me beat. I got to the second segment and couldn't stand the horrid pulling sensation inside my head - it went from the right side and slowly moved to the left with increased force. Absolutely not happening again. I have had children with no meds during birth, lived with FMS for years, I can handle pain and anxiety. The tech that said I was just experiencing panic can get off la la land and listen to patients. I thought I was nuts when I left there and my husband did too until I found you all. Thank you. This has really helped me to feel a bit normal today. (what's that like?) I only had two sets done, but have been dizzy and nauseated with a headache since I returned home.

I would greatly live with my symptoms and never know what's wrong then to go through that again. A spinal tap is sounding really enticing right about now.

OMG- I have had several mri's in the past but this is the first i've had on my lumbar region. I felt like my insides were being tugged in every direction ( bowels, ovaries, etc.) & was so hot that I thought the machine was overheating. My heart was racing & I was having palpitations like crazy. I was very dizzy upon completion of the procedure. I don't know whether the machine was more powerful than I'm used to or the fact that I've only had my upper body mri'd(shld, neck, head). I know the next time (if I'm so unlucky to need another) I will request the older machines that I'm used to or I may not be able to do it being that I'll anticipate the same effects that I experienced this time. Thanks to all of you who posted your comments, it helps to know other people have had the same  weird effects w/their mri's..

I posted yesterday - I woke up feeling OK today. Other details: I am 62 yr old female in good health and I did not have the dye injection.

I believe I am feeling some side effects from my first Brain MRI which I received last night. I have been feeling dizzy for a few months now and the doctors can't come up with any answers for me after several blood tests and eye exams. So they decided to give me a brain MRI ,without dye ,to see if they could see anything weird there. Like some others on this site, I felt a little strange while the test was going on. I started sweating and I felt a little heat in my head. I too was a little dizzy when the test was done. I will have to wait a few days for my results. Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I had a pretty bad headache between my eye brows. As the day went on, I was able to lose the headache with some Ibuprofen. However, I had diarrhea all day and now the area where I had my headache is swelling up.I am also having a twitching feeling under my eyebrows. Starting to get a little scared here. It has been 28 hours now...

I had 2 MRI's within a 10 day period.   Immediately following my second one, I experienced 10-12  days of extreme nausea, malaise, extreme fatigue, to go along with the rest of my fibromyalgia.

I had a brain MRI last night.  When I was being sent into the machine I felt like I was spinning, which subsided.  After that I just layed there while the machine made all the loud noises.  After about 20 minutes I was pulled out and the technician injected me with the dye.  I asked if I could sit up because I was feeling dizzy, but he said I had to stay in that position.  He injected the dye and I went back into the machine for another 5 minutes.  Again I felt the sensation that everything was spinning.  After I was done he helped me sit up, I felt very dizzy and the technician walked me back to the waiting area where my husband was waiting.  I sat for a few minutes until we drove home.  When I got home I had to lay down for the evening because I felt a little sick to my stomache and my head was hurting.  I also thought it was me only that had these symptoms, now I see after reading here that others are experiencing the same symptoms. 

I had my first MRI yesterday. It was on my ankle. I didn't have such extreme side effects, but my foot and leg seemed to have a lot of involuntary spasms. It felt really weird and I had to concentrate EXTRA hard to try to keep it still. Fortunately, she was able to get all the picss she needed. But it almost felt like my foot/leg were being pulled by some force. I wasn't nervous or uncomfortable either and wonder if perhaps the strength of the  magnets can have a negative effect on some people.

I had my 1st MRI yesterday as well.  It was an "open air MRI" but I still had many of the same effects. I broke  a sweat during the procedure, I felt like my insides were spasming and I swear it felt like the fluids in my body were vibrating which had an extreme nauseating effect. I too had to stop the procedure because it all became too overwhelming. After taking a "breather" for a few I continued with the test reluctantly. I felt "odd" the rest of the day. But decided I would "sleep" it off, however when I laid down I felt like I was "vibrating" or shaking from the inside out. I had jerky muscle spasms for a while and was almost afraid to get still because when I did I would start internally "shaking" again. After sitting up in bed for hours I finally became so exhausted I dozed off around 3am and awoke at 6am. I still feel very "odd" but with slight improvement from yesterday. I was glad to find this post and definitely believe that a study needs to be conducted on this.  

I had my first MRI yesturday.. First they did my neck and then my head. I didn't have any dye injected. I was pretty calm going in to the tube.. just like a tanning bed and the head phones were great! I was realaxed though the whole neck scan then the bed was moved and my head scan started. I was fine for the first few then I couldnt hear the music and the noise was starting to drive me crazy.. when the lab tech spoke to me through the head phones i couldnt understand her and i felt extremely dizzy but i told her i was fine just to get it over with. When it was finally over i was extremely dizzy and wobbled when i walked. She asked if I needed to sit.. but I just wanted to sit in my car and get out of there.. I was even having memory problems, like what I was suspossed to do when I left, I was miserable the whole rest of the day, irritable, nausous, lightheaded.. I went to bed early and today I feel fine..

I described it to my boyfriend as my "brain fluid" being waved which made my brain move around.. like a million tiny concussions.. I hope I never have one of those again!

I had one yesterday for my shoulder, was in for about 45 minutes, Once it was finished i felt like i just drank lots of whiskey, i didn't feel sick but felt really tired, dizzy and confused, i felt fine the next day, but its obvious that lying still for so long in a small noisy area will be uncomfortable and stress you out which will make you fell a bit weird and off!

I dont think its anything to worry about!

I had a similar experience just yesterday.  Went in for a breast MRI, never have had an MRI, but was not nervous and was quite comfortable for the first 10 minutes or so.  Then my body started heating up quite a bit and I tried to alert the nurse, but she could not hear me thru the headphones.  I could hear her, but evidently it was not operating properly.  So I just rode it out but became increasingly uncomfortable.  When it was over, I was dripping sweat.  I happened to mention to the nurse that I could feel it more on my left side than on my right, which I was curious about, because my left side is the concerned area.  She asked me what did I mean that I could feel it..  I did not quite know how to explain it, but it was rather like a pulsating that I felt..  She said that is unheard of, that I must be terribly sensitive.  I do have some strange body chemistry so I was not surprised that if something strange would happen, it would happen to me.  Anyway, I left there feeling very overheated, nauseated and dizzy.  I should not have been driving.  I was planning on going back to work, but never made it.  I was in bed the rest of the day, feeling quite ill.  This morning I am 75% better, but have no doubt my reaction was from the MRI.

I am so glad to know I'm not crazy!  I had an MRI on my knee yesterday, my second (neither included the injection).  My first was 14 years ago on the same knee and I had no pain or problems.  This time I felt vibrations and pulling in my knee throughout, but the second to last test (the really long one) actually started to hurt.  I could feel the test being done more on the left side of my knee, then towards the end it moved to the right.  The pain was horrible, like somone was pulling all of my veins out through my knee cap and shaking it the whole time.  By the time it was done I had tears rolling down my face that I was afraid to wipe because I was supposed to stay still.  She asked what was wrong (assuming it was the enclosure that upset me).  I told her I was fine, just in a whole lot of pain.  At least the nurse was nice enough after the MRI to tell me 'that happens sometimes'.  The entire night it felt like little bugs with little daggers were running around inside my knee.  The pain subsided a little this morning, but the knee is still twitching from the MRI pretty badly.  It amazes me that they aren't required to give some sort of warning about possible pain and discomfort afterwards. 

Went searching for others because just had mri with and without contrast 3 hours ago- felt slight dizziness upon leaving- verbalized to technician-

upon arriving at work, I now feel nauseous, tired, and that "flu" kind of feeling.

if they would have said there were after effects I would not have come to work

I've had a few MRI's before ... but today's was different and I went looking for answers. I was having a scan of my neck but my lower stomach / intestines and on the sides started to twitch very rapidly. The weird part is that the feeling was all the way across my body but only an inch or two up/down. This happened with the very first scan which was only for 40 seconds... never had to stop an MRI before, but I had to stop this one.

 I found this post which seems to have an explanation... MRI's can induce peripheral nerve activation.....   http://decaflon.com/science/notes/7945/ 

 Yes, my entire family had something like that. But we didn't have MRIs. It seems to me that lately ( in the last 2yrs) the viruses going around are worse and you are infected much more easily.

 And to reply to another post. I think the reason why they don't "tell us about possible pain/side effects" is that it's not screwing up the test, and that if patients knew about it plenty of them wouldn't want to get an MRI..but MRIs are so useful that they don't want to throw that into the picture to deal with. 

I am glad I found this site.  I am having extreme side effects after my MRI last night.  During the MRI  I had a feeling of pulling in my head and dizziness, diorientation directly after.  I could not think clearly and was glad to have mty husband to drive me .Today I am drained, headache, disoriented and feeling nauseated, I can not function properly.  I called the hospital to ask if this was normal and basically was laughed at and told there were no side effects to an MRI.

Thank God for this post!  I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only person that felt this way.  I felt all of the symptoms described.  They really should tell you the possible side effects of these tests.  Had I known what I know now from reading all of these comments, I would not have had this done!  Hopefully the side effects I am experiencing will go away.  Thank you for this site and that original post!  Very helpful!

Do you still have the twitching?  I am experiencing twitching also under my eye,  my hand, and arms at times.  Thanks.

and have had about ten of them.  I have them on my brain and spine with and without contrast.  This last time was the first time I have had any side effects.  During the MRI everytime the machine turned on my whole body cramped up.  It seemed as every muscle went into a flex state at the same time.  By the time the MRI was done my body was exhausted and it took everything I had not to cry.  They had to redo a couple of scans over and the tops of my shoulder were sore because my cramped muscles pushed me up against the head rest.  I mentioned this to my technician, neurologist and physical therapist and they act like I am imagining it.  I was not apprehensive at all going in as I have had several in the past and have always just slept through them with no side effects.

I'm a 48yr old male in the UK.  I've just had (about 2hrs ago) my first MRI scan (on my head to investigate a numb sensation along the side of my face).  I find myself reading these comments because, like others, I was "aware" of the scan as it was happening.  Not all the time, but certainly some of it.  Kind of like someone walking up and down my face with gentle fingertips - I could tell which way the scanner was travelling along my head.  I also had some sensations similar to those machines that fire electric shocks to tense the muscles.  What else.... definitely felt a pulling sensation in my eyes - not nice!

After the scan, I was surprised to find that I had blurred vision.  I mentioned it to the staff and was told it was probably due to the prolonged lying down.  Not buying that one.  Looking at the sky, there were two of all the aeroplanes I could see and my general sight was like it was before I had laser surgery 5yrs ago.

Fortunately, 2hrs on and my sight has settled down again.  Other than a slight metallic tang in (in, not on) my tongue, I seem to be back to normal.  Thought I'd post this to add to the anecdotes though.

By the way, I'm not given to panic attacks or exaggeration (former military & police).  I know what I experienced and believe what other people say they experienced.