Are scans actually reassuring?

[Ditapage]

my doctor says he will send me for a scan (ct or MRI whichever I prefer) if it will reassure me. I said I would probably start worrying about CT radiation and I'm terrified at the thought of an MRI machine. My symptoms are vague- panic attacks caused by pressure in my temple, behind my ear, side of head, jaw.. It switches all the time, it's never in one place constantly. It's nothing unbearable but my anxiety and what if thoughts are the worst of it. Part of me thinks yes a scan will reassure me, but I said the same thing about blood tests and an asthma test that came back normal and the anxiety has persisted and I ocassionally still get the sensation that set off my "undiagnosed ashtma" anxiety. I feel like I need/want to have a blood test weekly so I don't think reassurance really helped me.

I hate when the doctor leaves the ball in my court. My worst fear is there's an aneurysm or something causing the inconsistent temple pressure or I'm ignoring some bad problem. Would you get the scan? The only people I know who have had MRI's are-

- someone who had a neck tumour (it was a huge lump coming out of her neck- she's fine now)

- someone who had a neck injury (he wore a brace for 2 months)

- someone whose headaches were bad enough for her to see like a black tyre around her head.

- someone who had a pass-out seizure

in other words all serious doctor-ordered things. Has anyone else been in the position where the doctor left scan up to you?

[rsanchez]

I would go for MRI if I were you and I was worried about radiation from the CT. They can give you something to calm you down before you go in for an MRI too.

[spacebunnyx]

Hmmm... I'm not sure scans are reassuring. Every time I've had a scan or op (for genuine medical stuff) it's thrown something else into the works. For example, I had an lap which revealed a tumour on my liver, cue worry, further investigation revealed it was nothing major. An mri of my head revealed swollen adenoids tissue (as an adult), cue worry and it turned out to be nothing... I've had all sort of gynae scans which reveal one thing or another which turns out to be nothing.

We have all sorts of weird lumps and bumps in our.bodies and sometimes finding them causes more.worry than its worth.

Space xxx

[Stressed32]

My opinion is no. Going only feeds to your anxiety and sets u up for future behavior such as this. You can't go run and get a scan or a test for every symptom. At some point, you have to allow your brain to think that we are human. We will have symptoms of some kind. If not, it will always over focus on them until you get a scan. If your doctor would be pushing it, I'd say yes go. However, if it's just to ease your mind, I say no. You will be a mess while waiting on results too. Good luck.