Saturday, November 26, 2011

We went in today for Hannah's MRI and MRA. We were surprised to find out that both would only take about 40 minutes total...yippee! We were expecting about 90 minutes so that was a nice surprise.

Hannah was a trooper as always. She laid so still the whole time, and did really well with the iv for the contrast. We were happy to see that the MRI tech was one of our favorites, again another surprise since it was Saturday! This lady always gets it in on the first stick, which is key for Hannah.

Since it was Saturday, none of our doctors would be there to get the radiologists report after he looked at the scans. I had contacted them to ask if the report would be read, and if anything was found if they would be notified even though it was the weekend. They confirmed that they would be notified if anything came up, otherwise we would hear something on Monday from them. That puts all kinds of thoughts in your mind like, what if they find something and it doesn't get relayed properly, and we wait with this false sense of security until Monday, but then we get bad news?

I happened to notice that right next to the MRI room, is the radiologist room where I saw the doctor sitting and reading scans. Guess I had never noticed this room before, it's tucked away. I asked our tech if she would ask the radiologist if he would read Hannah's scans and talk with me while we were still there so we didn't have to wait the weekend. She said we were in luck, it was one of the "nice" doctors and he agreed to read them and meet us out in the waiting lobby afterwards. We only sat for about 5 minutes before the nice doctor came out and told us right there in the lobby in front of whomever was there that the scans looked good and were all clear!! Hallelujah!! I don't even remember if Hannah was listening or just sitting in her wheelchair watching tv, I was just focused on the doctor. What do they do if it's bad news? Do they take you in the other room or just blurt it right out too? We don't have to find out, phew!!

The doctor asked me what we were looking for with the tests, so I told him about the eye issues. He suggested that they order an optic MRI which won't focus on the brain this time, but specifically the eyes. I will talk to the neurologist about this at our meeting in December. I just wanted to hug him right there, but just shook his hand instead (for which he is probably thankful!!)

So this does bring the question, what is next? Hannah will have a 48 hour EEG beginning December 9th, where they hope to record her brain waves during one or more of these episodes. After that we go to clinic to see our neurologist and oncologist for discussion and results. Hannah is still having the episodes regularly. She tells me when she has one, and I have seen many of them up close. Her eyes shift slightly off to the right and she can't move them back to center to focus on me. She talks through the whole thing, is not incoherent, or acting like she is having any type of seizure. It only lasts about 20 seconds or so, then it's gone with no residual effects. Very odd and a little unsettling to watch.

We celebrated afterwards with our traditional 10,000 calorie lunch at Olive Garden. It was so much nicer eating already knowing the good results.

Thanks for all your kind words of support, we'll continue to move forward with this last test to see if we get any indication of what this might be. Thanks also for your donations sent for our holiday Gift Card drive. So far we have enough collected to donate seven $50 gift cards for those families in need of support during the holidays (and there are many). We will be delivering the cards to the hospital at our clinic visit on the 13th of December, so there is still time if you'd like to get in on the fun! Please email me with any questions at kprokop@optonline.net.

♥Kim