Young carers' support service
The MRI adventure of Billy the Astronaut
MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
It is a big donut-shaped magnet that takes special pictures of your body. It can look at the head, tummy, and also the feet. This machine doesn’t touch Billy and doesn’t hurt him at all.
Billy goes to Sunshine Ward to meet the play team. The play team explain to Billy what an MRI is and why he has to have one.
They show Billy how the MRI room looks like and the sounds that he will hear. They also play with the Lego model that looks just like the MRI room. The play team then follows Billy across the spaceship path down to the MRI room.
After Billy arrives to the MRI room, he meets the radiographer and the nurse. They will be the ones taking the special pictures for Billy. Billy needs special pictures of his head. The nurse then asks Billy’s mummy a few questions to make sure that Billy can have the MRI. Billy and his mummy then enter the room.
In the room, Billy puts on earplugs and the big headphones. Billy chooses to listen to a story with the special headphones. Billy lies down on the bed and his mummy holds his foot. The radiographer then goes to his command room to get ready to take the special pictures.
The radiographer talks to Billy through the headphones and tells him to lie very very still, otherwise it will spoil the pictures and they will have to be taken again. Billy is very good and lies very still in the MRI machine.
He can see rows of lights that look like a spaceship tunnel, they remind him of his own spaceship. Billy lies there for 30 minutes. The radiographer then tells Billy that the special pictures have been taken and he is good to go home.
Billy's reminders
- It didn't hurt
- It was very noisy
- It didn't touch me
- I had to lie very very still
If it's your first time having an MRI, or you would like extra information, you can talk to the play team just like Billy did. You can also ask your parents or carers to contact the play team. They can help you prepare for your MRI.