Hopefully this isn’t breaking rules. Yes it is a veiled attempt at advice because I’ve been hemming and hawing. But the question can be answered purely as is. There are obviously pros and cons so I’d like to know how you all feel.
Thank you.
hey if you can afford the cost, there’s literally no downside. Maybe you catch something before it becomes a big life threatening thing. do it.
The real question is: do you have to pay for it?
Yes but my insurance sucks and I somehow managed to meet my very high deductible this year. I can’t see that happening again in the near future. So it’s probably the cheapest I’d ever get an MRI lol…that part is part of the reason I’m considering doing it.
Insurance says it was approved so I would pay 20%. Normally when I haven’t met my deductible (most years), I would be paying 100%. I am comfortable financially to pay for something at 20%.
A long as I’m not paying and I am statistically likely to survive more than one afternoon longer if I decide to bother showing up.
You do NOT want an unnecessary scan. There is a common misconception that knowledge in this arena is good. While the scan itself is not dangerous, what you would be required to do with the information is. Almost everyone has some abnormalities, we call them “incidentalomas”. Knowing about them will cause unneeded biopsies and months to years of worry that “you have cancer” or " something is not right". There is a reason that there are strict screening recommendations in medicine. Unless a disease has a long preclinical (pre-symptom) phase with a clear improvement in outcomes from early treatment ( no lead time bias) then screening ( testing without symptoms to make sure nothing is there) is openly harmful and should not be done.
might cause you stress, or might lead you to finding something before it ends up threatening your life? There’s a whole lot of stress-inducing shit going around right now. Saying stress is potentially dangerous is true, but shouldn’t be used as an excuse not to get imaging done.
Haha yes I work in healthcare and we used the world “incidentaloma” when I was in school lolol.
Sometimes things diagnosed incidentally do save people’s lives though. I had an uncle diagnosed with renal cancer indicidentally when they were imaging him for some other reason. He had the kidney removed and has been cancer free forever now…might have been more than a decade ago. In many cases, a random scan can save someone’s life.
But the other hand causes things you describe, unnecessary stress and intervention for otherwise benign but odd things that people see. It’s one of the big reasons why you don’t generally just get an MRI just to get one.
I’ve been fighting back and forth with what to do in my mind here.
The more you look, the more you’ll find. Those pictures may give you answers you didn’t want to hear.
If I’m still on state insurance? Sure sign me up. I’m good with going into the machine. Without insurance? You paying? Okay? Me paying? Guess I’m dying.
If its somehow free and convenient, maybe. It seems like it could be interesting, but also the idea of seeing things inside my body makes me uncomfortable.
Yes. I’ve been wanting full MRI scans for abnormalities. You never know what you can learn about your body and, though you probably have nothing wrong with you, it helps to be more familiar with our own bodies.
My interpretation of the rules is that you can ask for advice or tips broadly applicable but not for tutorials in specific actions, e.g “how do i write a conveyance” or “how to do my maths homework?”
I think i signed up to do a uni study where you get a free brain mri and they didn’t invite me. So annoyed about that.
Yes, because after a couple of surgeries and medically unusual things, I’d love to know what the state of play is inside my body and if there’s more damage I need to get sorted out in the future
As an American, I would never get anything that is not medically necessary. MRIs be expensive.
Cancer is more expensive.
I would call an MRI looking for cancer medically necessary.
Indeedy.
