MRI results

Off to Children's Hospital again - arrived by 7:30 am.  Always fun to try to hold food and liquids from your child that isn't old enough to understand why she can't eat/drink for 8 hours prior to MRI.  I have learned to schedule these as early as possible but we had to wait about 45 min and all I heard was requests for "milk", "milk please", "eat" in her adorable little voice and breaks my heart to say no, you can't have it right now.  Instead of fully sedating her they gave her some drug via nasal spray that relaxes so she will stay still during the scan and it seemed to work wonders- she was singing during the entire MRI after it kicked in :)

As a mother I am not sure you will ever get used to watching your small child strapped tightly into this huge machine and see the panic in her eyes as the claustrophobia sets in.  I just try to comfort her by standing close by and every time can't help but think why her and what did she do to deserve this?

The nasal drug they gave her must not last very long because by the time we left Radiology and got to short stay unit for them to re-program the shunts she was done with the singing and did not want to sit still! Took several efforts of us pinning her down and holding her head before they could get both programmed. 

Speaking with the Neurosurgery nurse, he did not feel the ventricle size had gone down as much as they would like to see at this point but also not larger and saw nothing alarming showing on the MRI.  He will review with the surgeon and revert back with more information and also let us know the frequency of which she will be required to come in for follow ups.
Her fontanel is still sunken so he was not comfortable adjusting the setting on the shunt for the lateral ventricles but did increase the flow of the shunt going to the 4th ventricle. Apparently the 4th ventricle can shrink more but they are careful about the lateral ventricles shrinking too fast which can cause damage (pulls away from the brain).  I guess I am not sure what they would even do if her ventricle size had gone up- only that it might indicate the shunts aren't working but would assume they would wait until she is symptomatic anyway to replace...

Feeling relieved we got through the day and hopefully won't be back for a long time!

Follow up scans tomorrow

Morgan has a follow up MRI tomorrow (6 months post surgery).  I am not sure why but I always feel anxious before her follow up scans.  I am not sure how she will do being sedated and it is never fun watching her cry through nurses prodding at her, etc.- each time seems to be a bit different so I am not sure what to expect.  Also after an MRI (which is magnetic) she needs to have her shunts re-programmed which was a difficult task last time because she won't sit still. 

We have never once felt very comfortable after her follow up imaging because she has never had dramatic or even noticeable shrinkage of her ventricles like the neurosurgery team would like to see.  Praying for a good day