Don't you wish sometimes you had special x-ray glasses, so you could see right through people's clothes?

You could see the goofy boxer shorts with hearts on it that your gym teacher's wearing. Or the pack of gum your brother's hiding in his pocket(when he says he doesn't have any for you)

Well there's a special machine doctors can use to look right through you even deeper. All the way through your skin to your bones and guts and all the other gushy stuff inside! When this machine looks through you, it's called getting an "MRI."

M is for "magnetic"--because there's a giant magnet inside that makes the machine work. R is for "resonance"--a fancy word for echo (echo echo echo...). And I is for "imaging"--because the machine makes a picture or image that your doctor can see with his eyes.

• Play with MR

Well, you may have been feeling sick lately, and the doctors need to peek inside you to see what's wrong. That's so they can fix it, 1-2-3!

To get your MRI, you'll probably go to either a hospital or a special doctor's office that has the MRI machine. You may get a shot of a kind of medicine that will make your organs "light up" so your doctor can see them better. It's sort of like being colored on the inside with a magic marker! The needle may pinch a bit, but it won't last long.

Then, you get to lie down and relax all the way--while everyone else around you works! If your mom or dad or grandma or someone else brought you, they may not be in the room with you-- if not, they'll be right outside. The doctors and nurses will put some sort of strap around you, so you'll stay as still as possible. It's sort of like putting the seat belt on when you ride in a car.

In fact, the most important job you'll have is: DON'T MOVE! How can you stay still? You could try pretending you're a statue carved of stone, or the person who gets shot out of a cannon at the circus. When you take a picture with a camera, people have to stay still or the picture will be blurry. It's the same with an MRI. If YOU don't stay still, the doctor will have to do it all over again. OH NO!

The MRI machine itself is usually like a big tunnel that you get to ride into--think if it as a ride at Disneylandâ. If you've ever played with a train set, you've probably had fun watching the train go into tunnels and come back out again. Which is what you'll do too. Except you'll be in the tunnel longer--you could be in it for a few minutes or a half-hour. That's for your doctor to decide.

Don't worry--it's not dark in this tunnel. And you'll be able to talk to the people giving you the MRI at all times. They want to know how you feel and make sure you're comfortable.
Most important, remember that getting an MRI doesn't hurt a bit!