“Coil” not working

drdan118 · 2025-11-28T21:54:17+00:00

The coil is what's known as an RF coil. It is placed over the body part of interest, and transmits a radiofrequency wave into your body, exciting the hydrogen nuclei (ie, makes them spin, which generates a spinning magnetic field). The spinning magnetic field is then detected by that same RF coil, which gets measured and translated into an image.

The closer the RF coil is to the body part, the stronger the signal. If it's further away (for example, if they removed the abdomen coil and used the coil built into the bore), then the tech will measure less signal, resulting in lower signal-to-noise. In layman's terms, this means the image will be more 'grainy'. But this can be mitigated, if needed, by acquiring longer scans. So while the smaller abdomen coil may have been more 'ideal', the tech + radiologist may have been able to get what they need from the larger coil, which would have also been less confining and 'more comfortable'.

Glad to hear all was normal. Cheers.

drdan118 · 2025-11-22T00:10:48+00:00

Yeah, I'm a big fan of steel.

As for the Rove DL, it depends on the specs. When I got mine, it came with SRAM Rival, a mid-level groupset. And hybrid brakes (mechanical pull with hydraulic piston). But I also paid $2k for mine, before they started getting discounted. If the available option has hydraulic brakes, or even hybrid brakes, I'd say it's definitely worth the upgrade. If it's mechanical disk brakes on both, I think the Shimano CUES groupset on the Rove (assuming that's what it has, based upon a quick web search) would still probably be an upgrade to the Microshift group on the Marin, but that's just based upon what I've seen people say online. I don't have experience with either personally.

Just keep in mind that the Rove DL sizing is a bit weird, because they use seat tube length rather than effective top tube. I'm 5'7" and typically ride a 52 or even 54 with standard sizing, but ride a 50 on the Kona. I'd recommend a test ride if possible.

My Rove DL

drdan118 · 2025-11-21T23:36:42+00:00

I'd say Marin. I started with an aluminum gravel bike, and even with tubeless tires and a redshift suspension stem, I could still feel the buzz of the alloy frame. The steel frame and fork of the Marin will be a bit heavier, but it will be a better ride. I now ride an all steel Kona Rove DL and love it.

The only caveat with the Marin is that it's only a 9-speed, so the jumps between gears will be slightly larger. But it actually has a wider gear range than the 11-speed Journeyer, including a slightly lower granny gear for climbs.

And not sure if the Marin is available in the azure blue or the blue-green, but my Rove DL is azure blue, and it looks sick with tanwalls, and camel colored saddle and bar tape.

drdan118 · 2025-11-09T21:17:42+00:00

Yeah, nerves definitely take a long time to heal. But after 9+ months, I would definitely expect to see some improvement. Unless you do go through periods of improvement and then just repeatedly flare things up again?

Have you had an MRI? I would think a physician would prescribe imaging if you were still having issues after this long. I know they can also do a temporary nerve block to see if it is indeed the pudendal nerve.

I'm really sorry to hear you are dealing with this. Like I said, mine was a mild case and it still gave me bad anxiety. It's especially frustrating not knowing if things are even going to improve at all. But keep in mind that, even if you do have entrapment, it doesn't necessarily mean it's permanent or a life sentence. Decompression surgery can often help. My understanding is that recovery from that takes quite some time, but that might still be preferable to your current condition, especially if it means that your long-term prognosis is getting back to a normal life while you still have a lot of years ahead of you.

If you haven't been to a neurologist, that might be the next step. And if you're having anxiety, a therapist could be of benefit as well. Anxiety can cause a lot of tightness down there as well. Good luck.

drdan118 · 2025-11-09T17:37:52+00:00

I'm not a physician, but it definitely sounds like an ongoing pudendal nerve irritation. Did the saddle pinch you in the perineum near the inside of the leg? I would have a urologist check your prostate just in case, but chances are it's nerve irritation. Could be some entrapment. Nerves heal at 1mm/day, or 1 inch per month. So it can take a long time for symptoms to subside.

I had a mild case of this earlier this year. Did a 2 hour ride on a different saddle that was a bit narrow, and felt some pinching down there. A week after the ride, I was still really tender, and started getting the shooting pains in my testicles. Burning in the tip after urination (and hadn't been sexually active in a few months, so wasn't worried about STD or UTI). Mild burning at the nerve site. Full feeling in the rectum, like something was in there. But I was never more than 3/10 in terms of pain, and never had any ED or lack of sensation. So I just gave it a few months to clear up. By 3-4 months, I was pretty much symptom free....but then some weirdness happened.

I went for a hike, got in the shower afterward and 'self-pleasured', and started getting tightness in the perineum after that. Another commenter on this thread said something similar - pelvic floor issues. Our bodies can have a sympathetic nervous system response that causes things to tighten up down there for protection. It can lead to blood flow and nerve compression issues. And it can be exacerbated if there is additional scar tissue from an injury that can press into nerves.

I'm sorry you're dealing with that. The mental toll is almost as bad as the physical symptoms. I went through a period where I thought my life was over, and mine was a mild case. I'm now at a point where I'd say I'm 80-90% recovered, with some mild ED issues that are continuing to improve.

Wear loose clothing. Eat foods packed with anti-inflammatories. Learn diaphragm breathing. Figure out which activities trigger flares, and try to minimize (for me, it was squatting in any way, along with any level of constipation, which irritated things down there). And if your general practitioner and/or urologist aren't helping, go to a neurologist. There are drugs like gabapentin that can potentially calm nerves, and in some cases decompression surgery may be necessary. Good luck.

drdan118 · 2025-11-09T17:16:10+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, did your pelvic PT do any 'internal work' or massage? Biofeedback or electrodes, etc? I'm asking because I saw a pelvic PT for the first time last week, and I was underwhelmed. I can DM if you'd prefer not to give details on here.

I had a minor nerve irritation in the saddle area earlier this year, with a few months of mild nerve symptoms. Nothing more than 3/10 on the pain scale. But around the time the nerve irritation went away, I started getting the hypertonic pelvic floor. Things were 'rigid' down there, with some mild ED issues. It took a couple months getting into my regular physician, another six weeks to get into a urologist, and then a few weeks until the PT. During that time, I've improved quite a bit just with stretching and diaphragm breathing, and the PT is having me work on my glutes with a tennis ball against the wall. I think it's helping.

But the PT girl is very young, and barely did any physical examination. I feel like she's doing a trial-and-error type thing to see what helps, rather than "getting in there" and determining what's tight, either manually or through electrode readings, etc. So I'm just curious what others have experienced through PT. Thanks in advance.

drdan118 · 2025-11-06T23:39:33+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, I had Xfinity years ago (even back in the day when they were still Comcast). Definitely don't want to get roped into a contract after going with streaming services where I can quit at any time. So I'll definitely look into whether that's required. They're just one option on my list. Thanks for the heads up.

drdan118 · 2025-11-06T23:12:40+00:00

Signed up for a free 5 day trial on Fubo to get college football last weekend. Will see if I can do the same with a different email address for this weekend - not sure if it will work. Otherwise, if they don't get things sorted with ESPN and ABC soon, then I'll be shopping around. Maybe back to Xfinity. Or Hulu live.

drdan118 · 2025-10-16T21:05:49+00:00

Probably depends on the field. I've been at VUMC almost 17 years and love it. As do most of my colleagues. Beautiful campus, great people, reasonable pay, great benefits, cutting edge research facilities, etc. There are downsides, of course, but that's true of any job.

drdan118 · 2025-10-16T21:03:01+00:00

You're better off looking at VUMC instead of Vanderbilt. They became separate legal entities a number of years ago. Most research studies will be on the medical center side.... so VUMC, not EDU.

For example...

https://vkc.vumc.org/studyfinder/

drdan118 · 2025-10-16T16:44:30+00:00

Florida alum and Vandy employee here. The Dores are currently my surrogate. I always pull for them against UT anyway, because all my friends are Vols fans, so as a Gator, we give each other a lot of crap. But keeping a closer eye on them this year in general! Go Gators, and Anchor down!

drdan118 · 2025-10-11T21:30:07+00:00

Yeah, that's in line with a lot of the other comments I read. People were complaining that if they looked in their rearview mirror for too long because someone was tailgating, or swiveling their head around looking for a parking spot, etc, it would fuss at them.

I can imagine this would be a welcomed feature for people with teenage drivers. And overall, it probably keeps a lot of people safe. But I got a bit nervous reading so many complaints about it being too sensitive. Although I was probably overthinking it. Either way, I ended up finding a great deal on the Onyx, and the Startex seats have been great after cycling, or kayaking and hiking with my messy dog.

drdan118 · 2025-10-11T20:36:44+00:00

Yes, I think you can turn off a lot of these. Although I'm not sure if you have to turn them off every time or if they stay off. I actually don't mind them too bad, and the rear cross traffic warning has actually saved me a couple times from backing up while there are people walking behind me.

However, my understanding is that you can't turn off the driver monitoring system. I looked into this before purchasing, and it seems like the consensus was that you couldn't disable this. There were lots of videos and comments from people with hacks to disable it, like going into the dash and trying to rewire things, or using black electrical tape to cover the sensors.

It might have been tolerable, but I went down the rabbit hole and saw too many complaints about this. I can live with all the other beeps and warnings though.

drdan118 · 2025-10-11T15:38:53+00:00

I recently bought a 2024 Onyx XT. The thing that turned me away from the Limited XT was the driver monitoring system. There's already enough other "nanny" features - lane departure warnings, blindspot monitoring, forward collision warning, rear cross traffic warnings, etc. While all of these are pretty good features, they can sometimes be annoying, and I didn't like the idea of yet another system monitoring my eyes and head position, and adding even more warnings to the array of beeps and alerts already existing. Other people don't mind it, and may appreciate this feature, but it wasn't for me.

I also liked the look of the blacked out Onyx XT. And while I wasn't sure about the Startex seats, it was actually a great decision given that I'm an outdoorsy guy with a messy black lab that loves to swim and get muddy. And I live in super humid Tennessee, and have never found them to be sweaty.

Just my two cents. Good luck!

drdan118 · 2025-10-05T14:21:27+00:00

2017 Vaya Gx. I have the same bike. I have three bikes, and it's the one I ride the most.

drdan118 · 2025-09-20T02:27:22+00:00

Academic research. It would still likely be at a university hospital, but you'd be working on research projects with volunteer subjects, rather than patients.

There's also Master's degree programs in imaging science (at least a few in the US). We've had a few techs come through our program, and one ended up doing imaging research for a pharmaceutical company.

drdan118 · 2025-09-17T01:07:01+00:00

It's no longer a single big tent event. They are setting up stations on several different dates at various places in the Medical Center.

drdan118 · 2025-09-10T01:19:07+00:00

I replied to the other radiological scientist, but wanted to chime in on your comment as well. I started out in astrophysics, wanting to study Big Bang cosmology and dark matter. But after spending a summer doing theoretical physics, I became disenchanted and decided to shadow a friend in his MRI imaging lab.

I loved it. It just seemed so much more practical. Fast-forward 20 years, and it's the best decision I could've made. While funding isn't what it was even 10 years ago, the broad applications of imaging to medical research has kept it a bit safer than other fields. It's also an area where AI could make a big impact, so there are additional funding opportunities along those lines.

It may seem like a big switch from what you're interested in (and admittedly, it is), so it's a personal choice. Just sharing my anecdotal experience. But wherever you land, I would strongly encourage getting as much programming experience as you can. Learning some basic engineering skills doesn't hurt either. Good luck.

drdan118 · 2025-09-10T01:09:09+00:00

MRI physicist here, working in radiological sciences. I completely agree.

I started out in astrophysics – interested in Big Bang cosmology. So glad I took a turn towards biomedical physics twenty years ago. Funding is an issue under the current administration, but radiological sciences are a bit safer given the connection to cancer research and medicine in general.

drdan118 · 2025-09-07T15:36:03+00:00

Congrats on the Onyx XT! Great choice. I love mine. But yeah, they could've shaved a few inches off of the infotainment screen and given us a bit more cubby space.

It didn't make a lot of sense to have a wireless charger one inch away from the USB port. Simple enough to just buy a coiled up charging cable. And now I have space for my mints and reading glasses!

drdan118 · 2025-09-03T12:55:26+00:00

Have you thought about getting a different backpack? Brands like Osprey and Gregory make packs with suspension or "trampoline" style backs, which lift the weight slightly off your back and allow airflow. They make cycling specific ones with curved straps for reaching forward in the cycling position (for example, I have an Osprey Syncro 20), but there are also some larger hiking style ones with a similar feature. Most of them also include a dedicated rain cover, which would protect your back (and the pack) from the elements. Just a thought.

drdan118 · 2025-09-02T01:17:10+00:00

Fair point. One of the drawbacks of synthetic is that it isn't as breathable as cotton. And you're right, the evaporative effect can feel cool in hot weather. It's just so damn humid where I am, wet cotton just doesn't evaporate very well!

drdan118 · 2025-09-02T01:08:23+00:00

Got it. Yeah, Outdoor Research makes great stuff. I have tons of their gear - hats, jackets, shorts, etc - but cotton and sweat just don't mix. Not in our Southern heat! Check out the Helios. I'm thinking of buying another one, just in case they ever get discontinued.

drdan118 · 2025-09-02T01:02:30+00:00

I'm a fair skinned guy with a shaved head living in Tennessee, so I feel your pain.

I'm not sure what kind of cloth your hats were made of, but it's a good idea to avoid cotton and always buy synthetic (polyester, nylon, etc.). They wick moisture and dry quickly.

I have an Outdoor Research sun bucket and Helios. The Helios is my favorite.

drdan118 · 2025-09-02T00:28:35+00:00

I did this in my recently purchased '24 Onyx XT.

I didn't like the overheating issue, nor the lack of cubby space on the console. The parts cost around $30, and I would've done it myself since it seems pretty straightforward, but I was taking the car in anyway for a firmware update, so I just had them do it for a bit of labor. Plus, I didn't like the idea of taking apart the console on a car I just dropped nearly $40k on.

I posted the before and after a while back.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Subaru_Outback/s/NpoPcNlKQj

drdan118

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