Wondering if anyone else has experienced this. During an MRI about 3 months after my aneurysm coil, I received a shock from my coil as soon as the MRI machine started up. It came out of my head where my coil was and felt like it shot out the front and back of my head. Other than a racing heart after it happened, nothing else happened and the MRI was normal. I've been afraid to go in for any other MRI's since this happened. Please let me know if anyone else has experienced this. My neuro Dr. said he had never heard of this before. It scared the heck out of me when it happened.
Hi Robin...I haven't had an MRI since my coiling...I was suppose to on another part of my body...and I am too scared to go with coils in my head...there is much debate at BAF about coils/MRI's...I will be interested if anyone else responds that they had a shock...
Please ask your doctor to confirm the material that was used to do your coiling so that you will have this information for the future. It is possible that the machine that was used to do your MRI was an older one and that it is contraindicated for people with "any" metal in their body.
I have aneurysm clips from the era before MRI. It is well established that I can't have an MRI because of the type of clip. However, some people with newer clips may be able to successfully have MRI/MRA.
MRI's are permited up to a certain magnetic strength called "tesla." Most hospitals and outpatient facilities use a MRI up to 1.5 tesla. Select university hospitals use a strength up to 3 tesla and research universities can have units that exceed 5 tesla. It will be important to ask your surgeon who the manufacturer of your coil is and then find out what the tesla limit is for that coil.
I know this all sounds very technical but there was a case where a aneurysm clip was dislodged from a blood vessel with fatal results. The shock you received was not a magnetical shock but a electrical shock. Luckily you did not have a bad result. However, you need to report this to your Doctor.
What you wrote about the aneurysm clip becoming dislodged is exactly why I've been told not to have an MRI.
I was to have an MRI of my knee almost 20 years ago. Fortunately, the doctor who was about to order it was knowledgeable enough to ask me what type of aneurysm clip I had. I did not know. So, he asked me for the name of the surgeon who had performed the clipping. He made a phone call and received the the name of clip and confirmed that it was contraindicated for MRI. I've never forgotten the name of the clip - Olivecrona. It is named after Dr. Herbert Olivecrona, one of the pioneers of modern neurosurgery.
The new neuro that I saw a few weeks ago also strongly advised me never to have an MRI for this same reason.
Carole, its's so good to see a positive result after so many years after your surgery. Robin's experience is exactly what my wife experiences every day from common electrical devices found in our home and other places. We are attempting to get her on SSDI after 18 years because she literally can't go anywhere without getting zapped. Fortunately we discovered this trigger of her migraines but I start losing Doctors when we get into the technical details of how this occurs - you can tell when their eyes start glazing over and they begin wishing they payed more attention in their physics classes (it's so funny when they admit they know so little about physics). She is scheduled for a hearing in the very near future but if this phenomena is so difficult for a Doctor to understand imagine what it will be like for a Hearing Judge.
If you don't already have it, please include this info on your Medic Alert tag or other medical ID. It's important to let all medical personnel know that you can't have an MRI.
I'm really sorry to hear of your wife's suffering. I can only imagine how awful this has been for her.
Thankfully, I haven't had any problems with my clips and I've been spared having migraines. Amazingly enough, I've not had an incidents with all of the flights and security check ins.
I wish you and your wife success in getting SSDI.
You may have to start taking a little science project with you to explain how these things work. You can let the doctor's get zapped for a change. :-)
I provided my coil letter from my Dr. to the MRI technician and she confirmed that her machine was set within the coil restrictions. My Dr. said he had never heard of anything like what happened. I'll go back and find out more about the tesla strength. I was at an out patient medical center, very small satelite location. I can contact them and ask about their machine.
Yes, the shock felt like what you get from static electricity, except it was in side me, instead of on the outside like when you touch something and get a shock. Appreciate the information, I will go back and check on all of this, also speak to my Dr. again. It sounds like this is more common then he led me to believe. Sincere thanks.
I've written a detailed research report about this subject. I now have four specialist Doctors that have a strong degree of confidence in my findings and conclusions. It's stunning (no pun intended) that medical science has not ever recognized this phonomena, yet the laws of physics proves beyond doubt how this occurs. This is why the Doctors have confidence in my findings. The hard part is getting and holding the attention of medical researchers and the Food & Drug Administration. The FDA actually approves these devices without any followup testing to see if any harm is being caused. The FDA allows the manufacturers to self report on any incidents. I called my wife's clip manufacturer, they passed me around their office to the right contact but this person would never return any of my 10 voice mail calls. My next step is to create a FDA incident report, but my concern is how serious will these folks take this issue. Just imagine all of the patients (1.5 million have the clip version) that have cognitive memory and other issues who may be suffering pain needlessly - that's what keeps me awake at night!
Have you had any stents implanted as well as the coil? Do you have a card-to-carry listing the devices and the noted tesla volume for the MRI's? I was so impressed with Ed's note; i could not remember tesla until reading his input.
The patient has to be their own advocate now a days. Is your paper posted anywhere on line or could you please provide me with a copy? You've done this research for your wife? How does she deal with the daily shocks? I can't imagine how scary and painful that must be. Is there any way for her to carry around a "ground" so that this prevents the shocks? I've had other weird symptoms pop up since my coiling, but never though to connect it back to the coil. What are your wife's options with regard to what's happening? What is her current condition? Sorry I'm new to the site, so I've got catching up to do with everyone.
She asked me if I was OK because my heart started racing. When I told her I received a shock of some sort, she clicked off the speaker and kept the test going. Didn't seem to care or didn't know any better. I explained to her what happened after the test and she said her machine settings were within what my coil letter required. She said she never heard of anything like that before.
I was thinking about your wife's experiences today and began to wonder whether the electrical impulses that are causing the shocks she gets might be similar to the electrical impulses that cause seizures.
Have you explored this possibility? I know that you've been very thorough in your quest for a solution. So may I ask if your wife has had an EEG since her surgery? There might be some interesting information in them. I'm really curious about this.
You raise an interesting point. In theory, a EEG should be able to register any stray electrical impulses that are induced into the brain or nervous system. I never thought to think of it that way - thanks for the idea. I'll have to pass it on to her Neurologist for his thoughts.
It quite literally is called electrostimulation whereby the electrons from a nearby electric current have the ability to seek out alternative electrons to associate with. That's the simple explanation. The law of physics defines it as "electromagnetic induction." It a well known fundamental of electricity, but unfortunately it was never identified with "Cranial Hardware." If I turn a lamp light on 100 times and my wife is a close as 10 feet away, she will get zapped exactly 100 times. If we did it 10,000 times it will occur 10,000 times - it has a one to one corrolation.
It looks like my graphic did make here. It's a simple drawing but the curved line represents the scar line. The stainless steel sutures (not shown) would be perpendicular to the scar line. Because the sutures are just under the skin and penetrate to skull underside or menges, any inducted electromagnetic field can enter the central nervous system which is the brain main function.
I do want to post it and hopefully I can convince Ginny Tocci to post it on this site. As far as "grounding" we do have a computer static wrist strap in all of our vehicles so whenever we are driving she straps it on. It is connected via a alligator clip to the vehicles chassis. This strap has really made a difference over the last two years. If you have ever listened to an untuned AM radio in a car you can actually hear the electromagnetic fields as you pass under electric wires and transformers. This is because AM radio frequencies (500Hz to 1800Hz) are closer to the wave length of electric power which is 60Hertz in the U.S.
Her Neurosurgeon suggested that the only option, and a very risk one, is to remove the five sutured wires and replace them with modern day hinges and screws. Sadly my research is indicating that these too could be affected by modern day electronics.
Outside of these migraines she's in really great health and spirits. But her world is getting smaller and smaller because for all the efficiency of modern electronics they do have a downside that no one anticipated.
Just did a quick read about the EEG. It may not work for this purpose since it is constructed with a "Notch" filter. The Notch actually filters out the wavelength 60Hertz that needs to be evaluated.
