danielpiotte Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 To All, If you have to have an MRI make sure to have a set of Orbital x-rays to check your eyes for metal slivers. Please do not assume that the hospital personel understand that this is necessary. The first time I had an MRI I had to go up the chain of command three steps before I found someone who knew what I was talking about. This procedure is recommended for anyone who works with metal whether machinist or smith( I'm both). Daniel Mods, I placed this post in this forum in hopes of more people seeing it here than in the safety forum.Just because you dont read the other sections, others do. If everything was posted in one section, then there would be major problems locating any posts, that is why we created new sub sections as needed, to assist in locating information, Please have a look around the site and I am sure you will see there is a lot of activity all over the site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashelle Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I agree. At least as a minimum make sure that the people taking the MRI know that you work with metal. I bathe/shower daily, LOL (it's funny that I am qualifying this statement with that as a preface) yet when I went in for an MRI on a messed up ankle a few months ago I was giving off artifact echoes in the MRI. It turns out there was still steel embedded in my socks, So sockless and pantless I had to be for them to look at my ankle. They did end up taking extra long to get the images and some were blurry and had to be repeated, and not because I was moving around. It could of been a bad thing if it was near the head eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
territorialmillworks Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Wife needed an MRI at Scripps and they asked if she worked with metal to which she replied "no but I sit in the shop where my husband works as a blacksmith. The young male tech became argumentative, telling her that she couldn't possibly have metal (in her eye) to which she remained adament. Taking two steps forward and In a not friendly tone of voice, I made it crystal clear that the MRI wouldn't be done until the xrays were completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I had bits of scale in the bottom of the opening of a golf shirt set off the metal dictator in the airport. its not worth risking your eyes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I informed an orthopedic doctor that if I need to have an MRI, then I will need to have xrays of my eyes first because I do metal work. Guess what the doctor wrote down, "patient refuses to have MRIs" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crunch Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 What happens if you have an MRI with microscopic pieces of metal in your eyes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 The pieces go wherever the magnet pulls them. I periodically tell co-workers and folks I do any sort of dangerous activity with that if I'm unconscious to have them x ray me before the MRI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 What happens if you have an MRI with microscopic pieces of metal in your eyes? It can turn your eyes into scrambled eggs, or your brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRiley904 Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 MRI's involve very powerful magnetic fields. The idea of having metal inside one opens the possibility of it being rapidly pulled in any direction " toward the magnet" at a pretty predictable time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 To put this more clearly, the metal will be rapidly liberated, as in high speed slicing through you as it is pulled toward the magnetic field, and the lab techs are not always as bright as they are expected to be They are supposed to ask various questions to prevent this, but your life is in your hands.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Stuart Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 I have gotten back into forge work recently. I did not realize this. I had melanoma cancer 6 years ago before I restarted and have had a dozen MRI CAT, and PET scans since then. I am clean now of cancer but You never know. I am glad this was posted here cause I dont get time to read all the sections like I would like to. GOOD POST. Roger&Brenda Renegade Forge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clif Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 It's not a bad idea to ask for x-rays of body parts, I have a sliver of hammer head in my chest from 35 years ago, still on x-rays and I have to remind the doctors about it. They won't let me beyond the outer office of the MRI department. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chyancarrek Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Same thing here Clif . . . we had to take our son in for an MRI and the techs wouldn't even let me past the waiting room door once I told them I worked with metal. Their policy is full xrays and exam for anyone who is considered a risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Yates Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 I Weld, forge , grind and a ton of other things that involve metal imbedding into my body . the worst thing i can say about a MRI is Go to an Optometrist First ! get your eyes checked out and get ANY metal removed if possible ! you will have a scrambled egg for an eye if you don't . I have a very large rare earth magnet (3 in round x 1 in thick) that i run over my body for the rest of the steel so i can find it Yes it will move ! Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seldom (dick renker) Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 never gave this a thought before, good to know. now i know why i wa asked if i had shrapnel or anything like that prior to an mri a few years back. that was before i started this business of hammering iron. it will be mentioned if i have to have another one. anyone getting care from the va should have had the question asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian robertson Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 What happens to those little slivers of steel in you?you ask. They are rapidly removed from your hands, provide a fine mist of a blood splatter on the inside of the MRI tube, almost instantly become incandescent, appear to evaporate and get the 2 MRI operators/medical tech personel VERY excited. Oh and housekeeping gets a litttle XXXXX when they have to decontaminate the inside of the MRI; I told them I would do it if they gave me some paper towels& Lysol. Moral of the story: during the orbital xray hold your hands, palms facing outward along side your head. If they find any ferous metal they will remove it in a less dramatic fashion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iron woodrow Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 very glad i read this, i feel it is not so much a blacksmithing safety topic, as, even with full ppe, metal can be embedded in your body or eyes. I nearly passed this one over, in the new content page, because it is under "safety first" which i find repetitive and somewhat patronizing at times so generally skip it- but each to their own. i never knew this about MRIs, but will remember it always! i will make sure my wife knows to say anything in case i am not able to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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