We Survived the MRI

Our day is finally over. Cooper was a trooper and Pam was awesome. The day was a little more hectic than we anticipated, but it also wasn't as difficult as we anticipated emotionally.

Cooper appearing calm right after changing into his gown.

Cooper's appointment was supposed to be at 4:45 and because he had to be under anesthetic, he couldn't eat formula after 8:45 and couldn't have Pedialyte after 12:00.

He did great through the pre-admission. We were sent down to Imaging around 3:15 and told the pediatric anesthesiologist would meet with us around 3:25. We were a little concerned that maybe, if he was taken early, he wouldn't have fasted long enough.

I'm sure you already know where this is heading....

3:25 turned into 4:00. At 4:15, the anesthesiologist, Dr. David Rosen, came out and talked with us. He said they were just finishing up another pediatric case and they'd be with us "shortly."

By 4:00, Coop had had enough. He was screaming and crying. Pam pulled out every toy we brought. That eventually turned into walking up and down the halls and making a pass by the restroom to look in the mirror.

At one point, during his meltdown - he hadn't eaten for eight hours by this point - one of the employees asked Pam if she had brought any toys. I guess she had no way of knowing that he was the one having the MRI and maybe thought he was just fussy.

Finally at about 6:00, we were called back to a prep room. Dr. Rosen administered one anesthetic by nose, but, similarly to UPMC a few weeks ago, that didn't really work. About five minutes later, Coop was given a shot in his shoulder and within five minutes, he was out.

Pam placed him on the bed and we were able to kiss him as we made out way to the waiting room.

It wasn't as emotional as we thought. It was difficult to leave, but I guess we knew that he wouldn't be undergoing any surgery - just laying motionless in the MRI.

We were called back a little before 8:00. Dr. Rosen said that everything worked perfectly and the shot worked so he didn't have any anesthetic through the IV. But he did have an IV as that's how they administered the contrast for the MRI and gave him a saline solution.

Dr. Rosen said that they'd leave the IV port in for about 15 minutes just to make sure there was no reaction. Pam was able to feed Coop some apple juice, though he only ate about an ounce and half before falling back to sleep.

While we were waiting, Dr. Malek - the pediatric cardiologist making sure the MRI was taking adequate pictures - met with us to go over the "raw" results. He warned us that he had only briefly reviewed the images and hadn't done any measuring, so his information would be limited.

Dr. Malek said that Coop's body had produced extra vessels around the heart. This is most likely the reason he has shown no symptoms. But this could also be an indication that the coarctation - or narrowing - is severe.

I, of course, asked question he couldn't answer yet, just trying to get any details about surgery. From the sounds of it, a simple cut and stitch is most likely out of the question. They will either have to use an artificial graft or the subclavian flap repair, where they can use the existing subclavian artery to redirect blood.

We saw Dr. Gus in the hall before the MRI and he said he wouldn't see the MRI images until tomorrow.

So now we wait again. We aren't sure if we will get a phone call in the next few days or if we will figure out the course of action when we meet with Dr. Gus again next week.