Friday, May 22, 2009

Vanderbilt ER

An hour or so after the initial call from the doctor, Tom talked to him again. He said that if he couldn't get us in to see a Vandy neurosurgeon that day that he wanted us to take her to the ER at Vandy Children's hospital. Dr. Mangrum felt like this would, in a way, force their hand. This is what we ended up doing.


We got to the ER a little after 3 in the afternoon. After in and out doctors and nurses and lots of, "did she bump it?" they decided to do an MRI. Now, at this point the neurosurgeon has looked at the CT scan. He is optimistic. It has indicators of being benign. But he has no idea what it is.


The ER doc tells us that they plan to sedate CJ for the MRI. He said that it would take about an hour and that it is hard for a 7 year old to sit so still for an hour. Hmmm...and this is not any 7 year old that we're talking about. This is a child that just days before had said to me, "but Mom, I am just not a sit still kind of girl!" Yes, sedation is a good idea.

When the ER doc comes back he explains to us that they don't have the staff to support sedation for an MRI that they aren't going to act on right then. He wants to try it without sedation. He said that if she holds still, great, if she doesn't then we'll have to come back the next day for the sedation. They had goggles for her to wear, that show a movie, very cool. Tom and I both tried them on! The MRI was a success, she held perfectly still and I was so proud of her. They got all of the images that they needed and we just had to wait for the neuro-radiologist to read the results.

The news is relieving. The mass is mostly on the outside of her skull. There is a hole in her skull that the mass has gone through and it is up against her brain, but it hasn't penetrated her brain! Praise God! The MRI doesn't give us anymore news about what the mass is, but the fact that it hasn't penetrated her brain and the fact that it hasn't attacked her skull more than it has are both very good things.

No comments:

Post a Comment