MR Aye Yi Yi!

Alice had her MRI yesterday. I was up at 4:06am, they were up at 4:30. We made it to Levine with time to kill and had fun looking at this thing they had hanging from the ceiling. It was full of those plastics crystals and so beautiful. I want one for the girls room! Mr. Peaches mom told us that you can buy a crystal for $100 to donate to the piece. Ouch.

They called us back to take a medical history and explain what was happening. I had to give all the information 3 times, to 3 different set of people. Alice and Mr. Peaches had to leave the room because Alice was getting freaked out by what they were saying. Nothing scary, but the 8 year old mind, the unknown is terrifying. She was especially upset that they only allowed one of us to come back with her. She chose me, but she wanted her dad there too.

The nurse doted on her. I know it's their training, what they have to do, but it made her feel so at ease. I wanted to hug them all tightly for it. She laid down on the table in the MRI room and they put a pinkish purple mask over her nose and mouth. About 5 seconds later, the laughing gas kicked in, and she did nothing but smile. She fell asleep a minute later and doesn't remember talking girl scouts. I kissed her cheek and walked out. Even remembering it brings tears to my eyes. You don't want to leave your baby!

Back in the waiting room, Mr. Peaches was half asleep. The man needs his sleep. I think he functions best under 18 hours a day. We got a pager and went to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. We hadn't eaten because Alice couldn't eat. We sat there and talked for a while about the whole thing. About what was going to happen. A part of me hoping it's a cyst, or even a benign tumor that they can just get rid of and we can be done with it all! No more curving of her back, and all back to normal. The other part of me terrified it's going to be something more. Malignant. Or that it's going to be nothing and the curve will grow worse. My head is still a mess.

We head back up the the waiting room, and wait. He's reading and trying to catch a few z's, and I'm reading, trying not to let my min wander. It's going to be 2.5 hours. That's a lot of wander time. After a while, his mom calls down and tells us to come up to the recovery floor to meet the people. It's a nice waiting room. They have wi-fi and computers, plus a playroom. Anything to keep you occupied. MIL comes in and starts to show us off. Show off her hospital. Hospitals are not cheery, but this one came pretty close to it. The nurses were all smiles and wonderful to meet.

They found out that Alice was coming up in 10 minutes, so they tried to hurry us out. Parents can't be in the room at first. I found out why when I saw my baby being wheeled down the hall, wrapped up, with a tube down her throat. I don't think I'm ever going to forget that sight. I hope I don't have to see anything like that again in my lifetime.

They called us back after about 10 minutes, when they got it situated. Alice was still asleep, but starting to stir. She doesn't really remember much, but it was a struggle to get her to stay down once she started waking up. She just wanted to go. I kept having to tell her to lay down, that mommy was here. She would lay down and fall back asleep, only to wake right back up, not remembering a thing. She moved and thrashed so much, that she caused her IV to start bleeding out on the bed.

When she was finally awake, she ate some crackers and had a Shasta lemon lime. She was groggy but ready to get out. Mr. Peaches went and got the van, while they wheeled her out. Her hospital adventure over, my half out of it Lizard (my nickname for her) was hungry and demanding. I half felt like I was dealing with her former 3 year old self. She settled on Subway. A spicy Italian on wheat. After that, her bearings started to clear up, and she didn't seem like she was stumbling on herself.

We have a follow up appointment November 23. In 12 days we'll hear the results. Keep us in your thoughts please.