I know I should have posted earlier this week, but I was hoping we'd get results back before I posted. It seems they aren't in a rush to call us though so I guess I will call tomorrow.
The MRI went well for the most part. The test itself was fine. The awful part was trying to give her an IV so that she could be sedated. Poor little thing has her mother's veins which are impossible to find. Two nurses tried to give her the IV with no luck. They even had a little light that they put under her hand so that they could see the veins better. It didn't help though. If she's like me, her veins are deeper than they seem so they are hard to get to. They tried for a few minutes in both hands which, of course, had her screaming to the point of gagging. Jeremy and I tried to hold her and calm her, but she is getting to the age where the has fear so that added to pain of the needle and the feeling of being restrianed makes everything worse. I think she even remembers the experience of getting an IV since she's had so many IV sticks in the past. All the nurse did was bend her hand downward to try to find the vein and she started screaming. I think she realized what was coming.
Finally, the said they wanted to give her a break. I'm pretty sure they also needed a break. She has the ability to make anyone's blood pressure rise. I was wondering how many more times we were going to do this. I felt bad for Emma, as well as the nurses. They said they had a three stick rule for babies which seems to mean trying to find a vein in 3 places because I swear they stuck her more than three times in each hand. After trying her hands, they told us to pick her up and take her for a walk in the hall.
As I carried Emma in her 'Johnny' (little baby hospital gown) up and down the hallway in the MRI department, she slowly started to calm down. It took awhile though. I was dreading trying again, feeling sure that she would eventually throw up or choke from the screaming, and wondered if they would send us home only to have to do this all again another day if they couldn't get it on the third try. Finally, one of the nurses said she had a back up plan. They were ready to call an IV specialist, but if we wanted to, we could try an oral sedative. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!??? We could've given a little squirt in the mouth and we'd be done with this? Why the hell didn't they tell us this sooner?? Well, the nurse practioner then explained that although this was the way they used to do it all the time, the IV is more effective. If the child has trouble going to sleep with the IV sedative, they can give them another dose. Not so with the oral. Sometimes kids can wake up in the middle of the scan and then they have to try again another day. Some kids also need a contrast solution during the MRI that would need to go through the IV, but Emma didn't need it, so there was no need for anymore sticking. They asked if I wanted to consider it. Jeremy and I agreed without a doubt that we wanted to do it orally! I'd happily come back another day if it meant she didn't have to get anymore needles that day. So we gave her a little squit which she still didn't like since the taste was awful, but after a little cradling, rocking, bouncing and singing, she quickly drifted off into a nice quite sleep. It was amazing!
Jeremy went into the room with her since he wanted to watch. I decided to take a break in the waiting room. Exactly 45 minutes later, Jeremy came to get me and took me to the recovery room. I sort of felt like she had just had surgery, but knew we'd at least be coming home right after. She continued to sleep for about 45 minutes at which point we finally woke her up to give her a little sugar water. She had to start out slowly as sedatives sometimes cause queasy bellies. She didn't have a problem though and was able to drink her formula when we got home without any problems. A neurosurgeon was called down to reset her valve and he even made us verify the setting on the device to show that he had set it to the proper setting. I was relieved. When we first came into the room, the nurse wrote STRATA VALVE right on Emma's bed sheet in huge letters to be sure it didn't get missed. Boy, was I relieved. She said they have sent people home without resetting the valve though so my fear wasn't unfounded!
I must admit that if you've never seen a 'drunk' baby, you're missing something funny! She was floppy and a little out of it for the rest of the day. She didn't realize it though. She kind of tried to behave normally, but couldn't quite hold her head up all the way or keep her eyes fully open. She was very happy though. It really was amusing. She also slept much of the day which was a nice break for me. By early evening, she was pretty much back to her old self. We look forward to getting the results, but feel pretty confident that it will be a good report. I really hope she doesn't need another MRI anytime soon!
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