MRI Day

This past Monday, Princess had an MRI. It was requested by Dr. D. It WAS scheduled back around Thanksgiving, but with the weather threatening snow that day, I postponed it until after the holidays. We dropped Little Man off at school and then headed down to the Children's Hospital, two hours away. Sadly, because Princess couldn't have anything to eat or drink, we had to skip our mochas that we usually get when we make the trip.

I will admit, I was nervous going down there. Not because of what the MRI would mean. This MRI was her second one. Her first one had much bigger implications. It was of her heart and torso. And essentially it was one of those if we don't find anything, she'll go home, but if we do find something, she'll be immediately air-lifted to Stanford and face immediate open heart surgery. To say I was a nervous wreck for her first MRI at 3 months old is an understatement!

This MRI was of her brain. I was nervous about because she would have to be sedated. They sedate children under a certain age for tests like this because they can't hold still. Any time a child goes under anesthesia, it's scary. And being she's so little, it scared me even more.

She got to wear her jammies there and when we got there, I filled out the form, which was essentially 35 ways to ask if you have metal in or on your body and the small part about kidney problems. Of course, we have kidney issues, so I had to mark yes on those, but they weren't using contrast so it wasn't a problem, nor had Dr. H nor D. K seen a problem with her having the MRI. So we met with the Anesthesiologist and she told me that there was a small chance that Princess would need to be intubated, but likely not. The most she was anticipating was something to keep her tongue away from the back of her throat, but even that might not be necessary. The scan would take about 40 minutes and then she would be wheeled into recovery. I was okay with this. And on top of it, I was going to get to go back and be with her as she fell asleep AND be there when she woke up in recovery.

After the Anesthesiologist came Child Life with her bag of doctor tools. Princess recognized all of these, save for the mask, which she wanted to put on Tinky Nee. After playing for a few, it was time to go back and get ready. Man, I wish I had their sleepy medicine. Princess was out in like a minute! They even gave Tinky Nee his own mask (which happened to be a preemie sized one!). They did her IV after she fell asleep and when the Anesthesiologist came out to refill her water (while her partner was watching over Princess), she said that it went in well. There's always a concern with NICU kiddos as they usually end up with so many IVs and PICCs that their veins are shot for years! The nurse managed to get her medic-alert bracelet off and brought it to me after she was asleep too. We had tried the night before to take it off and she had had a meltdown over it being off.

After she was back there, I went and found a bathroom and mocha. Wasn't the best mocha I had, but better than nothing! This was view in the waiting room, which THANKFULLY wasn't at the front of the hospital! Her last MRI had the waiting area right in the main entrance. How wonderful for families to see this pacing mama...Right around 45 minutes or so, she was wheeled out and we headed for recovery.

The Anesthesiologist said that they had to give her a second dose of meds because she woke up in the middle and when she told Princess "It's okay, baby," Princess responded, clear as day, "I'm not a baby!" Yep, that's my girl! So it might take her longer to wake up. She also came out on an oxygen mask and with a breathing treatment ordered. She had just gotten over a cold the previous week and had sounded a little gunky coming out. Thankfully, we didn't need the breathing treatment. They also wrapped her IV in pink coban with purple hearts. She of course had to have freshly painted pink toes for her MRI, and I told them she was a diva, so it just made sense!

It took her about an hour and a half to wake up. This is not surprising. The girl was in her element: hospital noise! I swear it is her white noise! But while we were there, we managed to get a blood pressure that was JUST ABOUT what the nephrologist wants it at:

I had to take a picture because no one would believe me if I didn't! While she was out, I got Child Life to bring us a Beads of Courage update. And then I picked her up and she woke up! She got to have a pink Otter Pop (must find out where to find these for summer!). And then we got take all the stickers off, take the IV out, put our shoes on and go home!

We stopped for lunch for me and something to drink for Princess and then headed home. Thankfully, MeMe was off of work so she picked up Little Man from school because by the time we got home it was almost 4:30pm! It was such a long day! We had Taco Bell for dinner, as I was exhausted from driving all day. The kids had popsicles first, which sadly made Princess messy. That whole poke a hole in the cup and put the stick through thing does NOT work if the popsicle melts! It just runs down the stick!

After dinner and giving Princess a bubble bath, she got changed into fresh jammies and then we put her new Beads of Courage on her "Special Jewelry." She got a black "pokey" bead, a dark green for being NPO for overnight, a light green for the MRI and a fish for having to travel two hours to get there. This was her first OFFICIAL Bead update since leaving the PICU two years ago. All the other beads between her Act of Courage Bead and her new Fish Bead were earned through the Beads of Courage Facebook Page.

It did take Princess till Tuesday afternoon to completely rid her body of the fluids she was given. She was puffy the morning after. But this is to be expected, I guess, because she has kidney disease. It can take her longer to get rid of excess fluid.

The report on the MRI was posted a couple days ago to her MyChart online. According to the person who read it, it was "unremarkable." This isn't surprising to me. Her Cerebral Palsy is very mild. One of the reasons we were doing this MRI was to make sure the insurance didn't question the diagnosis and just to cover all the bases. We'll see what Dr. D says when we see him though. Maybe he'll see something different.

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