Sarah Blackburn was one in all many who jumped in on the hype to get a full-body MRI. The take a look at as a preventative screening software has been gaining recognition in recent times. Many already wholesome people take the scan hoping to be reassured that nothing is out of the peculiar. However Blackburn had fairly the alternative expertise.
“I had a full-body MRI just for fun. No symptoms whatsoever,” Blackburn says in a viral TikTok video about her expertise earlier this 12 months. “Now I am scheduled to have an organ removed in two weeks.”
Blackburn determined to take Prenuvo’s $2,500 full-body MRI in Houston—the fast-growing firm has been increasing throughout the U.S. after launching in Vancouver in 2018. Whereas the scan will not be a substitute for beneficial routine screenings like mammograms and pap smears at your physician’s workplace, the corporate claims its 60-minute take a look at is an early detection and preventive well being software, scanning for tons of of circumstances and “silent killers like aneurysms,” in accordance with the positioning. However for a lot of, it’s simply extra information to retailer away as a result of usually, there may be nothing to behave on, which was the case with me when, as a part of a narrative, I underwent a Prenuvo full-body MRI final 12 months.
“I was so excited to get my results. I don’t know what I thought we were going to find. Now, looking back, I was just so certain that this was going to give me peace of mind and that they were not going to find anything serious,” Blackburn says.
After the scan, individuals obtain a report that outlines every organ of the physique and any informational or necessary findings. “I was treating it like a spa day. I was so excited, and taking pictures in my little scrubs,” Blackburn shares on TikTok. “It did kind of feel like a spa day, until it didn’t.”
4 days after her scan round 8:30 p.m., Blackburn was alerted that her outcomes had been prepared. She posted screenshots of the leads to her video.
“I went into a full blown panic attack,” she says. Marked in pink letters beneath the circulatory system class, the phrases “important finding” sat. She had a splenic artery aneurysm, in accordance with the report.
The discovering’s description famous that whereas “the majority of splenic artery aneurysms are incidental findings … if a splenic artery aneurysm ruptures, there is a one in three mortality rate.”
“It was a really dark and hard two months, where I was spiraling and freaking out and seeing a lot of doctors and pretty much treating my body like glass because I had no idea about this,” Blackburn shares. “I literally felt like a ticking time bomb was found inside my body.”
After months of deliberation, Blackburn determined to get her spleen eliminated, and tells Individuals that she had, the truth is, had a lesion on a 2020 ultrasound that she had by no means discovered about. “Read your radiology reports,” Blackburn instructed Individuals. “I did not read it. I just thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to get told everything that needs attention.’ But, that was not the case.” A follow-up CT scan after the Prenuvo outcomes discovered two anyeurums in her splenic artery.
Whereas in some instances the full-body scans can uncover an necessary discovering, it could possibly additionally trigger undue anxiousness about issues which are nonetheless within the vary of regular, Dr. Matthew Davenport, the William Martel Collegiate professor of radiology and repair chief and vice chair within the Division of Radiology at Michigan Drugs, beforehand instructed Fortune.
“Knowing is not always to your advantage if what you learn doesn’t have a clear pathway. Sometimes when you learn a piece of information, you can be misdirected as to the importance of it,” he instructed Fortune. “You can learn something about yourself, but it can actually increase your uncertainty.”
Usually, individuals could go down pointless rabbit holes and extra testing, he provides.
However for Blackburn, the scan brought about her to behave—and was, the truth is, extremely helpful for her well being. “I will be starting the journey of life without a spleen, which I think is going to be okay. It’s going to be better than having to live in fear of having a ruptured aneurism,” she says within the video.
Nonetheless, she says she has combined emotions about recommending the scans to others, particularly those that have extreme well being anxiousness.
“I feel grateful,” Blackburn says. “I am happy that I know about this and had the chance to decide what I wanted to do moving forward, but … for the people who already have existing health anxiety I truly don’t know if I can recommend it.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
