Vanderbilt Children's Hospital

Eli's MRI went well on Tuesday. He was the sweetest little thing in that blue hospital gown that was just his size. About the time they put it on him I reached for my camera. no camera. "WHAT?! " "I ALWAYS TAKE MY CAMERA"!!! Well, I was so worried about getting Eli Bear out of this house happy from him not getting to eat or drink I forgot my camera! He couldn't eat anything past midnight. He couldn't drink milk passed 4:30am. He could have Gatorade, water and apple juice from 4:30am until 8:30 am. It was no problem. He drank about 12 ounces of Gatorade in the car until cut off time. He was happy! I just knew how much he liked his milk first thing upon waking and I was really quite surprised how well he did. He arrived at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and I was supposed to make sure in the order it said a MRI of the brain AND full spine. WEEEELLLLL, no such luck. Everyone in that whole place was beyond sweet, loved children, respected what the parents could be going through,etc. Except the one girl at the Diagnostic Imaging counter. Rude Rude Rude. I explained the reason we came was for the birthmark on his spine and poor muscle tone. Dr. Maley said last week at Eli's well check he would send a fax to Dr. Kilroy stating he wanted a MRI of spine as well to clear up anything about the spine since we will be driving 2 hours with a NPO child that is a year old and will be put to sleep. hmmmmm. She didn't care. The spine MRI takes 3 hours and they didn't have that kind of extra time to work him in. Well, I called Dr. Maley and he said it would be fine to wait and see if his muscle tone improves. So, we went back and after changing him into the precious little gown and taking vitals they have him a drug called Profovol up his nose to calm him enough to get an IV in. (come to think of it I need some Profovol daily) They tried his little foot and before the nurse tried I knew she wasn't going to get a thing. They called in the IV team and they got it on his scalp. There are less nerve endings on your scalp so it doesn't hurt as bad. But, it sure looks brutal. So, after the IV was ready we took him to the MRI room. We layed him on the big table and watched them put him to sleep. Not fun At All. He went right off but that was the problem. It just happens sooooooo fast. Anyway, they gave us a pager and told us it would be 45 minutes. We ran to the cafeteria and ate some taco bell and enjoyed our selves for a few minutes. OK, well, we TRIED to enjoy ourselves..all we could think about was that little booger asleep! After lunch we took a short walk around the hospital. Wow, what a hospital Everything is geared for children. Its amazing! Everything is chill decorated but so tasteful! We got a beep on our pager and rushed back there. Eli was in recovery sound asleep and so sweet! I took advantage of him being so still. I just stared and kissed..stared and kissed. awesome. So, after a long talk with his nurse about the Bible, Memphis, St Jude, etc (such a great lady that lives in Germantown and worked at St Jude for 22 years) she discharged us. Eli awoke to a bottle of pedialyte and apple juice and teddy grams we were on the road home! He was quite fussy the next day but he is doing great now. we are still waiting on results but I will post them when I get them (probably today)!