After many cancellations and reschedulings, we are finally taking Amelia in for an MRI brain scan. She hasn't had one since she was in the NICU. It may sound odd that we haven't followed up on an MRI -- being that we have a child with neurological issues, but it hasn't really been my priority. Amelia's MRI from the NICU never showed anything. Nothing. Big fat zero! She is who she is...but no tests, scans or otherwise have ever come back as anything but....normal.
I always cringed at the idea of putting Amelia under anesthesia and exposing her to radiation in order to see some images that are never going to make a squat of a difference in her life. If Amelia was having seizures, this information would be important. If she was regressing and we couldn't figure out why, this would be critical. But as things are today, it's not going to change her plan of care. It's not going to give us some magical answer that will give us the knowledge we need to "heal" her. It's just a gathering of information. Nothing more.
So, why now? Well, she's five. Also, we have a great neurologist at Children's Hospital (CHLA) who thinks it's time. She posed it simply to us: "She hasn't had one since birth. It's time to have a new MRI done so we can have a conversation about it." I don't know why it made so much sense to me when she said it this time, but it did. I felt like, ok. Let's do this!
It also helps that Amelia has been very stable these past few months. Since she had her ear tubes replaced in April, she's had just a sinus infection over the summer. Otherwise, she's been healthy and thriving -- although, I will say LAZY!
Must be the mood in the house with me on "low activity"=sitting on the couch! And Nestor...well, in a nutshell, he climbed up on wall by our front gate to fix a light sensor, fell and has the "rolls royce" of ankle sprains. So he's been lying on the couch next to me. Together, we're about 1/2 a parent! Poor little Amelia, her parents are such fuddy duddys! Anyway, Nestor's on the mend and I am in a temporary state of being...so we'll be back and better than ever in no time.
3 comments:
Hey---you are looking GOOD with your sweet load! I hope she did well on the MRI brain scan, but know you won't have immediate results. It's good you did it now.
Hope you are both on the mend.
We still don't have our cable, so I'm at Jackie's to use the internet.
XOX----Mom
Dear Deb,
You look fabulous for someone so gravid as you!
I came home and the cable was working so here I am. We are all praying for the 3 of you.
Love,
Dad
How funny, we just did Charlie's first MRI since the NICU as well. Since she's gone under GA without incident several times in the last year, we figured it couldn't hurt. I was super impressed with how well she did! She never needed intubated and she woke right up out of it. I could hear her squealing as they were rolling her back down the hall to us. LOL Charlie's came back completely unchanged. I was almost hoping for change so we could explain some of the weird stuff she has going on but we're back to square one. Hope you get good news with Amelia's!
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