MRI #3: The Verdict

I suppose the drama started the night before we were to go to the hospital. My mom and dad came to pick up Synnove and Soren was quite sad. We told him that he had to go to the doctor, but more than anything, he wanted to go with Grandma and Grandpa to be with Synnove. At first I thought that he was being anxious about going to the Dr., but I don't think he fully understood that we were going to the Dr. for him. He shed some serious crocodile tears. After they left we all snuggled on the couch to watch a movie to get our mind off of what was going to happen the next day.

The next day Adam tried our best to wake up earlier than Soren so that we could eat some breakfast without him knowing. He was only allowed clear fluids till 10:30 so he had apple juice for breakfast. He seemed quite happy with that and never complained about being hungry! We arrived at OHSU at 11:00 and the nurse came out to the waiting room to put numbing cream on his hands and feet. The cream has to sit close to an hour before starting an IV so that there is little to no pain. Soren barely said a word to the nurse, got LOTS of stickers, and then went on to play with toys and read books. By 12:30 the sedation nurse came and got us to begin the process of sedation. Soren still hadn't complained about being hungry. The nurse taking care of Soren was the first nurse that took care of Soren during his first visit to the PICU! I didn't expect her to remember us, but I said something to her and she said..."I thought I recognized you!" Out of the many many nurses that took care of Soren during his time in the hospital she and two other nurses are the only three that I can remember their faces. What a coincidence!

Anyway, they had lots of distractions for Soren while they attempted to start an IV. They started on one hand, but couldn't get it to go. He was distracted and the numbing cream worked so well that he didn't even flinch! They switched sides to try on the other hand. This time they got it to work, but Soren felt it, said "ouch," and tried to move his hand to see what they were doing. They covered it in time and he never even saw the needle. Starting pediatric IVs is truly an art form that only a few are good at. Believe me, I know.

By the time he was OK'd to be sedated, we had been waiting at the hospital for 2+ hours. He went to sleep as the anesthesiologist (a wonderfully energetic grandpa-ish fellow) sang to him. He was to be out for around an hour so we went to eat lunch. About 10 minutes after we returned they called us back to tell us that the MRI was done and Soren was waking up. All went smooth. Soren was goofy and lethargic, but eventually ate his grape Popsicle and was cleared to leave.

We headed down to the clinic on the tram to make it to our 3:30 appointment with the neurosurgeon. By this time, Soren was acting like a kid with serious ADHD. After a while of his craziness, I assumed that it was probably a side-effect of the sedation drug (I found out later that it was...thankfully). We were called back and left to wait in the room for a solid HOUR with our ADHD child! To keep him under control and keep him from hurting himself (walked like a drunken sailor) we had to strap him into the stroller.

Long story short, Dr. Selden finally came. We reminisced a bit and looked at all of his previous MRI/CT scans on the computer. He was extremely confident that the likelihood of his mass/tumor to ever come back is virtually nil. A-MEN! We said our goodbyes and Dr. Selden said "have a nice life!" Ha ha...we will.