Good Scan Today

Today Jude and I got an early start to our day.  We needed to be at Children’s in Minnetonka at 7 a.m. for Jude’s MRI.  This was the first time we had gone 6 months between scans.  The appointment snuck up on me and I barely had the chance to worry about it.  After I woke him up way too early, I watched Jude like a hawk to ensure he didn’t eat or drink anything (since he has to be sedated for his hour long MRIs).  We then headed out.  He was so excited to get to “do the mask.”  I’ve realized that the kid is addicted to the nitrous oxide (laughing gas) that they use get him ready to drift off to sleep, before placing the IV (for contrast and fluids).  He happily chatted with the intake worker and taught her all about the Garfield app he was playing on my phone.  He balked when I was filling out the paperwork and dared to ask him if he was pregnant, which the form needed to know.  After filling out the paperwork, the nurse led us back to get him weighed, measured and checked over.  Then he and I played some basketball and ring toss type games that I dominated at.  He picked out a nice smelling grape Crush-flavored chap stick to paint the inside of his mask.  We got wanded to check for metal on us and quizzed down about loose teeth.  I walked him into the MRI room and he insisted on jumping onto the table himself.  He likes to hold the mask to his face himself and the nurses/doctor are always so impressed with him and think he should teach a sedation class to all the other kids.  After he drifted off, I gave him a kiss and then grabbed my work bag and headed to the waiting room to wait.  An hour later, he was out and recovering, sleeping soundly.  It took him about a half hour to wake up.  With slurred speech from being half asleep, he requested a green popsicle and some Lorna Doones and ate them even messier than he normally would.  The nurse was militant about not letting him walk out of there.  She and I loaded him in a wheelchair, while he protested about how he could really walk.  He wheeled himself down the hall on the way out and stopped for a bathroom break.  While the nurse was out of the bathroom, Jude insisted on marching around the bathroom to show himself and me that he could really walk.  As soon as the toilet flushed, the nurse marched in to ensure Jude wasn’t walking.  I got the car and drove it around while Jude was waiting with overprotective nurse who he described with a look of disgust as “crazy.”  We then headed to McDonald’s to get Jude his first meal of the day and pick up Andy to head to see the oncologist.  She wasn’t running far behind today, which was very unusual.  As soon as we see her, I wait with bated breath for the results.  It turns out the radiologist hadn’t read them yet, but she did herself and they looked good — no sign of recurrence.  By 7 p.m. today, we got final word with good results.  Another scan by the end of the year.