MRI

Today was our repeat MRI, for comparison purposes. We had to be there by 8am but Caleb wasn’t allowed to eat or drink.  He did amazing considering! We were admitted straight to the pediatric ICU. Caleb was all smiles until the nurse started doing vitals. It was over after that, he lost it every time she came into the room. She was very considerate and applied EMLA cream(a numbing cream) on his non-thumb sucking hand(a momma request to start the IV so he could still suck his thumb- which was successful) and then on his other arm(just in case) prior to starting his IV. She also was able to give him part of his sedation meds prior to the IV so that the IV wouldn’t be so traumatic for the boy, seeing as just taking his temperature under his arm was drama!

Waiting for the EMLA cream and oral meds to kick in so we can get the IV started and get down to do the MRI. Still happy at this point(as long as his nurse wasn’t in the room!) I guess I will always be his favorite nurse!

They warned us that the medicine given can make people feel drunk, some people are happy drunks, some mean drunks and some sleepy drunks. We were hopeful for the sleepy, happy drunk boy. Which thankfully he was!

On the way to the MRI. Sleepy boy.

Because I am pregnant, I was not allowed in the room with him. They put me in a waiting room all alone. But there was this one “mirror” which I quickly figured out if I smooshed my face up to I could see the control room and then into the MRI room! JACKPOT! I was so excited. And being a nurse I was very excited to be able to hear the machine as well as his heart/oxygen monitor. A was very reassured to hear his little heartbeat as well as the machine(which meant that there were not problems as long as it was still running!) Caleb wake up immediately after the testing was done and was placed in Daddy’s arms. Last year it took Caleb all day to wake up so we were very surprised that he was awake,very drowsy,but awake so soon. We headed back to the ICU room, got another set of vitals, gave him some of his pediatlyte and were discharged. We were home by noon. WoW is all we can say.

He fell asleep again on the way home but was making some weird snoring noises so we made a pallet on the floor so we could closely monitor him. He had to sleep off the rest of the medicine. When he finally woke up at about 2:30pm he was able to eat for the first time in almost 24hours! We started simple with pedialyte and baby oatmeal(both favorites).

Here is our little home ICU bed.

It took a little more awake time for him to really start acting like himself(a little tipsy when sitting or crawling). But by dinner he was back to his old self again. The doctor’s office called and our neurologist hadn’t seen the films himself but that the preliminary results from the radiologist was that it was UNCHANGED! Although we were praying for a miracle- that  the spot would have totally been gone. This is great news! (the difference between calling the spot on his brain a cyst vs a tumor is that a tumor grows and changes.)

I will update you all when we get the official results from Dr. H. But for right now I am just glad today is over!