The MRI

LM had his MRI today. Overall, it went well, but there were (and still are!) some not so good parts. We won't know the results until next week sometime.

We had to be there at 6:30 am. Our appointment was scheduled early because LM had to come in fasting since he was going to be sedated. We did a lot of waiting around until finally around 7:15 they put an IV in him. That was definitely not one of LM's favorite parts. I was a little surprised that they didn't give him gas or even deaden the spot on his hand before inserting the needle.

After the IV, they tortured him by sticking a small tube up his nose to suction it out (he has a small cold). They wanted him to be able to breath clearly while sedated. The nurse stuck the little tube clear into his nose and half way down his throat, it seemed. LM was screaming the whole time of course. I tell you what though, it was a whole lot more effective than those blue bulb syringes they give us at the hospital when babies are born! DH and I joked that we were going to have to get us one of those!

They then took us to the room right outside the MRI room. The nurse used a syringe to squeeze the sedation medicine into LM's IV. It took less than two minutes for LM to zonk out. (We decided we need one of those too!) The nurse took LM into the MRI room and put him on the platform. We were not allowed in, but I was able to take some pictures from the door. I took some video of him sliding into the tube, too. I will try to attach it if I can.

That was at approximately 7:30am. We were sent to a waiting room to wait for the 20 minute test to be completed. Around 8:00 I walked back to the recovery room to see if he was done yet. They were just laying him on the bed and hooking him up to the monitors. They said that he had woken up a little and had started coughing, so they had had to give him more medicine to sedate him again, and they suctioned his nose once more. Only one adult was permitted in the recovery room for each child, so DH and I traded off every 30 minutes until 9:30 when they told us to wake him up. I know you'll think I'm mean, but I couldn't help laughing at LM during the 15 minutes between waking time and leaving time. Although he was awake and talking to me, his speech was slurred and he had almost no control of his body. He kept trying to grab the crackers I was feeding him, and would miss by a mile. He kept saying something about "take it off". I thought he was talking about the corded things (blood pressure gage, oxygen count) and he got irritated with me when I didn't understand. In an attempt to point, he threw his right arm completely across his body (reminiscent of Princess Bride) toward his pic line for the IV and stated loudly (very loudly) and clearly, "Take THIS off!" I just laughed. When I carried him out to the Waiting Room to get DH, he wanted to play with some of the toys there and kept trying to slide out of my arms. I set him on his feet and held him up as he drunkenly made his way to the toys. The exaggerated movements and bad coordination made both DH and I laugh. (I know, I know! Horrible parents! At least we aren't taking things too seriously!)

It is now almost 6:00 pm, and LM has been sleeping most of the day. When he hasn't been asleep, he has been throwing up. He threw up in the van (not ours--the one the dealer gave us while they fixed ours--Oops), he threw up all over the front door step and flower bed, he threw up all over DH and the couch, and the latest, he left a trail of throw up between the table where I was holding him and the kitchen sink. I stepped in that one. Gross. We called Primaries to ask if we should be concerned that after almost 11 hours he still can't keep anything down, but they said that it wasn't uncommon, especially with the double dose that he received. Their advice--even though he is begging for food and drink, we aren't supposed to give him anything for at least another hour. He needs to sleep the medication off and get it out of his system. I'm not sure if his weakness now can totally be attributed to the medicine or if being hungry and throwing up aren't adding to it. LM has regained more muscle control, but his balance and coordination are still bad. When we first got home, he wanted to lay on the floor by his toys. The next thing we knew, he was trying to get into the play room. He didn't have enough power to stand or even crawl. Instead he had his face to the floor, arms dragging, while he pushed forward with his knees. Yep. We laughed at that one, too.