MRI, NPO, OMG.

Friday started out like any other day in the Griffith house, in that we starved Eve and waited a couple of hours for scan #15.

An 8:00 MRI means that you sign sedation consent forms for 30 minutes and then watch old VHS tapes for another 90 minutes while you wait for a scanner to open up. This was the earliest scan Eve has ever had, so the NPO wasn't too big of a deal...for the first hour or so.

She was taken back a few minutes before 10:00. I left for a cup of coffee and retrieved my book, since the scan would take about 45 minutes. I mean, MRI's are old hat now. I know how long a scan should take.

Which is why after an hour, I put down the book and listened for any sounds of distress. Nope, all was quiet in the pediatric radiology area (probably because most of those kids are sedated). I figured they got a later start and picked my book back up and tried not to worry.

About ten minutes later, I overheard a nurse say, "Kerry's patient woke up."

Dammit. Eve is Kerry's patient. Why can't we get some propofol in radiology?? Seriously, we need the big guns to put asleep the child who has NEVER stayed asleep during a scan, under "sedation." I understand another bolus of precedex quickly knocked her out for the remainder of the scan, so this was not the reason why it was taking so long.

At the two hour mark, I begin to get worried. What the heck are they doing with my daughter back there? As they bring her back to recovery, I am told that the scan took so long because the machine will only take pictures when she is breathing.

Yep. That's what I was told. I'm gonna have to call radiology and ask about that one.

We were outta there by 1:00. Not too bad at all for a scan day! That's darn near "in and out" as far as Duke-time goes.

Back home, Natalie and Daniel put the finishing touches on their entry for the neighborhood cupcake decorating contest. I heard cupcakes cure cancer. I mean, I think it was cupcakes. Either that, or chemotherapy. But I'm pretty sure that chemo works better when you eat cupcakes.


They won! Ahh, my mini-Messy Chefs. [Heavy on the messy.]

And what better way to celebrate a good phone call from your friendly oncologist than to shove a few cupcakes into the old pie hole? Yep, Friday night, the doc called and we got our first no-strings-attached bit of good news. The left kidney is larger than past scans, on account of it being the only one, err, left. There look to be no nephrogenic rests. No signs of tumor.

I reserve the right to post next week, bitching and moaning, in the event we get a phone call with some strings.