If you’ve ever had an MRI, you know the experience can be unsettling.
You lie on your back, stay completely still for about half an hour and listen to magnets whirl around you.
But a group of Bakersfield doctors say they have a way to make the procedure as easy as sitting up and watching TV.
An upright MRI is a specially built machine that allows patients to sit, stand or recline at an angle to have a MRI done.
While comfort is a selling point, doctors say the range of motion makes a big difference when it comes to diagnosing problems.
"I hear from patients all the time who say my doctor thinks I'm crazy because I had a normal MRI,” said Dr. Bradford Anderson, who specializes in physical rehabilitation and medicine.
"If they have most of their pain when they're sitting or standing, it makes more sense to get pictures when they're sitting or standing."
It’s something traditional MRI’s can’t do.
But at the newly opened Bakersfield Upright MRI, they have the only machine in the Central Valley that can do an MRI from adjustable positions.
"You can actually sit back here, watch television while you're having your MRI done, it's the most comfortable MRI you can actually have. The sound is decreased because you don't have magnets that are jumping up and down on each other,” Dr. Anderson said.
"When I walked in and saw that huge machine, it was intimidating, but I figure they know what they're doing,” said Roxanne Ornelaz, who had an Upright MRI done.
Ornelaz has suffered from scoliosis for ten years.
She’s had MRI’s before, but says her doctors couldn’t tell her why she was in pain.
Earlier this week, she tried an Upright MRI.
"This one was pretty comfortable, and you get to watch t.v. and that helps the time go by quick,” Ornelaz said.
Patients can either be referred by their doctor or come in on their own and doctors say if your health insurance covers a typical MRI, Upright MRI’s should also be covered.
