Friday, September 4, 2009


Today was a very draining day, but it really went so smoothly that we can hardly complain.
Imogene was such a trooper and mommy only got teary a couple of times. We arrived at 8:30 and of course nothing happened until 9:35. Once she was in her little orange gown and we'd heard the doctor explain all the terrible things that could, but wouldn't, go wrong due to the sedation, we all went back to the MRI suite. I held Imogene in my lap and the doctor placed the littlest oxgen mask you've ever seen over her mouth to help her go to sleep (they do this first and then do the IV, smart doctors that they are). She protested for about 10 seconds, and then fell asleep. (Typing this out gets me teary!) We laid her down on this massive table and headed back to the waiting room. Her IV was placed in her foot (after attempts at both hands failed), and then the scan took about 45 minutes. The nurse brought us back to her recovery 'bay' and we sat next to her while she slept for another 45 minutes.
Having the opportunity to watch her sleep like that got me teary again. She has never slept very well, and goodness knows we would never go in and watch her sleep, as much as we might want, for fear of waking her up! Of course most babies wake up in recovery, we were told, after about 30 minutes. But then Imogene never does what 'most babies' do. The nurse had to wake her up. Sweet baby just looked around at all of us, like "What's going on? Why am I awake?"
The nurses were all extremely sweet to her, perhaps because she was the only baby in the MRI suite! Children's National Medical Center is a massive hospital. Walking around I was a bit overwhelmed thinking of all those children that were sick or hurt and needed special care. What warriors they have in their parents and the doctors and nurses that care for them. But how sad that a building that big exists to take care of sick and hurt innocent children who've had no control over the lot they've drawn. I definitely felt lucky today, and that was an emotion I was not expecting going in.

So now we wait for the neurologist to receive the final report from the radiologist sometime next week. Since we'll be at the beach until the 12th, I'll start calling each day the week of the 14th to get us in to see him!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and good thoughts, again! It definitely helped us through today.

And now, we're off to the beach. What a much-needed vacation for all of us!

1 comment:

  1. I can't even imagine how hard this day must have been. You are as much a trooper as she is! Glad you all got to get away with a great beach week.

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