Spinal MRI

What's the best gift to get a 3 year old for their birthday?  An MRI under sedation!

Ok, not really, but that's the running gag in our house right now.  Nothing says happy birthday quite like going for a sedated procedure the day after your birthday.  It couldn't really be helped, though, because we had to get it scheduled within the approval window after the fiasco with the insurance last October, and this was the earliest they could fit her in since she needed extra time blocks because they were scanning her entire back.  But now it's over, and I'm hoping to hear from her CF team either later this afternoon or sometime tomorrow once her docs get to read the scans.

The fasting part went much better than I thought.  John and I didn't eat or drink in front of Judith so it would help take her mind off of things, and she only asked for her cup a couple of times.  Having a super early time block helped as well, because we were able to get her up, change her overnight diaper, load her into the car, and go.  Plus it gave us an excuse to get breakfast in the hospital cafeteria, which has some pretty decent food and fresh bagels each morning.

As soon as Judith got into the waiting room, she realized something was happening, and when she saw the nurse she started to get upset.  She really freaked as soon as the nurse pulled out one of the pediatric hospital gowns for Judith to wear, and it was a struggle getting her jammies off and the gown on.  She was a hot mess from that moment until she went to sleep after they gave her some of the gas.  Once she was asleep, they placed the IV to give the sedatives, and John went to get some breakfast for us while I headed back to the waiting room.

We thought the whole scan would take about an hour, and the nurse said it shouldn't take longer than that, but 2 hours later we were getting ready to ask someone if they could check on her status when the nurse came to get us.  The anesthesiologist told me that they were going to use the nasal cannula for oxygen, but it might be possible that they would have to intubate her.  The longer we were waiting, the more I thought that they probably had to intubate, which ended up being the case.  Judith was not a happy camper, and I could hear her crying outside of the heavy doors going into the pre-/post-procedure area.  She did settle down once we held her (well, once John held her, because apparently I'm made of acid and it burns to be held by me haha), and was pretty loopy.

While I was holding her, though, I felt some nasty crackling in her chest.  The doctor in the room listened to her lungs, and said she did have a lot of secretions in there.  I called her CF nurse as soon as we were in the parking garage and asked for instructions to help clear it out (extra vest time and albuterol every 3-4 hours).  They were surprised that she was intubated for the scan, and said if things don't improve to call them tomorrow.  So here's hoping things improve!