I received a call on Tuesday the 9th of February asking if we could come in for an MRI on Thursday the 11th of February, as they had a cancellation. I mentioned Isla was just getting over a cold and was still a little snotty, but they thought that should be fine as long as she wasn’t chesty. So an MRI was booked in for 11am admission on Thursday.
I took Isla in for her MRI, along with Zac. She was initially first on the afternoon list starting at 1pm. She had been fasting since 7am. She got bumped to second on the list, so they thought we would be going in around 1.30-2pm. You can’t eat or drink in the day surgery area as all the kids are fasting, but there was feeding room we could use so I could give Zac a breastfeed and his lunch. This was a bit tough on Isla though, as obviously she wanted to have something to eat and drink when she saw Zac eating, but she was really good while we waited.
We had been speaking to Isla about the gas induction for her GA, as she doesn’t love the masks. She had a blood test a few months ago and didn’t cry and stayed really still for the needle. So we asked if she would prefer a needle to the gas mask. We told her it would be a little prick just like her blood test, but they wouldn’t need to put the mask on her face. She said she wanted the needle, so I chatted to the anaesthetist about that. He said we can put numbing cream on and give it a try, if it doesn’t work we can always go back to the mask. So the nurse put some numbing cream on both arms and one hand to give the anaesthetist some options.
Keeping busy while waiting to go in
After a pretty long wait we eventually went down to MRI just after 3pm. I think we had probably been bumped by 1 or 2 more emergency cases and everyone apologised about the wait. When we were in with the anaesthetist we asked Isla again if she wanted the mask or a needle. The anaesthetist showed her the mask and she whinged and buried her head into me and said that she wanted the needle, so we did that. Isla cried as the anaesthetist pulled off the sticky patch that was holding the numbing cream on, but when he put the needle in she held nice and still and she was fine. She went off to sleep and I left them to it.
Garreth finished work at 3pm and came in the meet us. I hadn’t eaten since 7am either, so I grabbed something to eat and had a coffee with Garreth. Garreth took Zac home and I went back in to wait for Isla. She came back about 5:30pm. Again, she took a while to wake up, but she was eventually awake and eating ALL the food! We left the hospital just after 7pm.
We were back the next afternoon for her plastics follow up appointment. We had to wait a fair while in the plastics clinic, but we were eventually seen. They were happy with how her finger (post mole removal) was healing. Although the stitches were dissolvable and would fall out soon, they decided to just cut them out on the day so it was all done. We actually had the same nurse in the clinic as we had the previous night in recovery. The nurse removed the stitches and Isla said it hurt, but was very brave and stayed really still for her. So hopefully after our physio appointment next week we will have a little break from the hospital for a little while. Next EUA due around the end of April.
The oncologist called me on the 16th of February to let me know that the MRI had been reported and it was all fine. They can obviously still see the lesion in her right eye, which looks similar to the last MRI and her brain is still clear. She also mentioned Isla’s blood test was good this time. Her neutrophils are back up, so that is great to hear also.
© Alison Davey 2021
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