Long Day .... But Happy Ending!

Part of the pre-Growth Hormone evaluation is an MRI of the pituitary gland and the general structural make-up of the skull and brain.  Today we had an early appointment scheduled for an MRI on my little guy, Donovan, as the last piece of the pre-Growth Hormone evaluation puzzle.

My typical week day begins with the alarm clock ringing at about 5 minutes to 6am for Jon to get his sorry little butt out of bed and then I file out 30 minutes later - he unfortunately didn't hear his alarm this morning and apparently neither did I and we both over slept by 30 minutes.  Our intent was to be out of the house by 7:20am to get my Norah to school by 7:45am so we could make the "cluster" of a rush hour trip into downtown.  I say "cluster" because due to the building of a new "inner-belt" bridge and the possible instability of the current inner-belt bridge, all exit ramps are pretty much closed down and the road goes down to a minimal amount of lanes and traffic is absolutely horrid.  So suffice it to say, we needed all the "extra" time we could get to make it to the CCF main campus on-time for Donovan's scheduled MRI.

I must insert this because this was the absolute most favorite part of my day ... I love the song by Adele "Someone Like You" and it so happens to be Donovan's favorite song.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0  After walking Norah into school, I came back to the car with Jon and Donovan listening to this song on the radio, and Donovan was passionately belting out this song at the top of his lungs.  I had no idea that he could sing the song.  It was exactly what I needed to calm me down, made me laugh so hard that I had tears running down my cheeks.  Have I told you how much I love my Donovan and how lucky I am to have him in my life and how lucky I am to be his Mom?!

We did manage to get to the radiology department on-time, but as it always seems to go - you hurry up to get to an appointment on time, only to wait and wait.  Donovan spent 19 days at this institution in February and he still remembers.  He remembers the ouches more than anything.  Putting on a hospital gown freaks him out and the thought of "needles/shots" is beyond unnerving.  Poor little guy!  I felt so bad for him.  Today was no different, he was very skittish when we walked through the doors of the Cleveland Clinic.

I respect the need to have us at the appointment early, to make sure all the paperwork is done and to put Donovan, Jon and I at ease.  Typically a wait would be annoying, but when the staff spends adequate time to make sure our needs are addressed and our questions are answered, I will not complain about the "wait-time".  The staff was exceptional.  Unfortunately, Donovan is somewhat of a "frequent flier" in the pediatric radiology department; but it does come with some small perks - such as the Child Life Coordinator knowing your child and remembering how "stressful and overwhelming" his last radiology/imaging experience was.  So she made sure that Donovan was comfortable immediately.  Which in turn, made me more comfortable.

I like how they prepped Donovan.  They told him no "ouches", at least not any that he would know he was having because they had to anesthetize him in order to do the MRI.  They worked with his "worries and anxiety".  So he handled things brilliantly for a 3 year old who has pretty much been to hell and back enough times in his short little life.

I'm the lucky (or unlucky one, depending on how you look at it) who gets to typically take Donovan back for any procedures that require anesthesia.  He's a Mommy's Boy!  Today we had a great Anesthesiologist, she played right into Donovan's Toy Story hand and he became comfortable with her immediately.  I carried him into the room where they administer the anesthesia, he had his "buzz space mask" (or that's what the Anesthesiologist called it) and told him we were flying into space (and that he was).  By the time the gas was about to put him into a nice relaxed "sleep" she says to Donovan - "to infinity and beyond" and then laid his head gently down on the table.  I gave him a kiss goodbye and told him I loved him and was escorted out.  Always a hard thing to do, because you know you are leaving your child into the hands of basically strangers and they are giving him drugs, and you hope that your child doesn't become one of those rare statistics and never wakes up.  Given Donovan has managed to be one of the "rares", medically speaking, I still get a little anxious when I walk out of the procedure room.  I guess it didn't help that the anesthesia nurse asked if we had ever heard of propofol, and that it's the anesthesia they were going to give to our son to put him under for the MRI.  It dawned on Jon that it was the same drug Michael Jackson took that killed him and of course, he had to make a wise crack about it.  I felt an instant pit in my stomach.  Turns out that propofol wasn't very successful with keeping Donovan still during the MRI so they had to switch anesthetics and needed to intubate and give him gas instead.  The procedure/MRI lasted almost 2 hours - so I can tell you by the 1 hour 45 minute mark of waiting in the waiting area - both Jon and I were getting a bit nervous.  Mostly because the radiologist tech told us that she would keep investigating further with the MRI if she saw something she didn't like.  And we were told that the MRI would take roughly 45 minutes - not counting the anesthesia administering time.

He faired well, he went from a deep sleep to awake rather quickly.  First thing he asked for was his eye glasses.  He's never done that before and I found it to be very interesting.  Mostly because he realized that the glasses help him to see and I never really knew if he realized that.  Sounds silly I know!

He drank and ate and they let him go home.  Our appointment was at 9am and we didn't leave CCF until after 1pm.  A very long day for us.  We promised Donovan that if he was brave and a good boy we'd go to Toys R Us and purchase a special toy.  Our first stop was at the store and then to Norah's school to pick her up.  Since we all hadn't eaten much all day, we grabbed a bite to eat out, and made a quick stop at Old Navy to purchase Norah and Donovan some winter boots that were on sale and while at Old Navy (around 5:30 pm) Jon gets an email and low and behold the MRI results were in.  Just like that we found out that Donovan's pituitary gland is just fine, no structural issues and his brain looked perfect!  Explains why my little guy is so smart! When we got home, the doctor had already left a message on our answering machine shortly after noon.  How about that for service!

I am so happy that there is nothing wrong with his "noggin", but a little sad that Growth Hormones are in Donovan's future.  Last step is a visit to the cardiologist to make sure she concurs that it's okay for him to be on them.  Based on our last conversation with her in May, unless his echocardiogram comes back "suspect", than it will be a go!