MRI

Yesterday we went back to Vandy for an MRI that has been scheduled for a couple of weeks. It is routine to check her the spot where the tumor was after the first six weeks of chemo. I was, again, a nervous wreck about the germs in the hospital. But CJ is a pro.

When we get back to the room to have the MRI the tech tells me that they don't have the nursing staff to access her port so she will have to have a regular IV. I tell her that they had told us that we could go upstairs to have her port accessed but that I don't know if anyone is there on Saturday. So she calls someone on the 6th floor and they tell us to come on up. Long story short, after 45 minutes and trying twice, the nurse cannot it. She thinks that she is in but no blood is coming out. What happens is after the needle/tube are in they flush it with saline and a medication to keep it from clogging. When they are flushing it they push some in and then pull back on the syringe, to pull some blood in, so they are sure that they have done it right. Well, the saline was flushing fine, but no blood. The nurse thinks that maybe her line is clogged, maybe there is some clotted blood. She thinks she it's done right because Clara isn't saying it hurts when she flushes and because Clara says that she can taste it. She always complains about the way it tastes. I ask the nurse what they will do if her line is clogged and she says that there is stronger medicine that they can push through to unclog it. So she ends up with a regular IV anyway!

The MRI went well. She wiggled a little, but overall was still and they got all the images they needed.