Last Friday, September 29th, our 4-year-old daughter, C, underwent four different tests at the local children's hospital in Chicago. Boy, that was a long day! We left the house at 8:00 am to arrive for the abdominal ultrasound at 10:30 am with an abdominal x-ray immediately following that. Both of these tests were ordered by her urologist to check her anatomy and for any abnormalities that could be causing her urinary incontinence and urgency issues. I was reminded why these tests were necessary when we were only 5 minutes away from the hospital, and we had to make a pit stop at the Rock-n-Roll McDonald's because she had to use the restroom and couldn't wait. That gave me a chance to buy coffee and a breakfast sandwich since parking was free with a purchase. I ate breakfast quickly in the car without letting C know that I had food. She had to fast from midnight the night before due to the testing and wasn't happy about it. Luckily, the the first two tests were easy enough and were done quickly! She was a trooper and very cooperative (minus not liking the gel they use during the ultrasound). Next, she had the the full spinal and brain MRIs, which included being put under general anesthesia. The spinal MRI was the third test ordered by the urologist for her urinary incontinence, since this condition could be caused by having a tethered spinal cord. Her oldest sister, age 8, has had two surgeries already to repair her tethered spinal cord. So the urologist wants to rule that out as the possibility for C too. The brain MRI was to further evaluate the pineal cyst that we have been monitoring since she was 15 months old since she has a new onset of coughing and has speech delays that are not improving with speech therapy. (See my previous post on 9/17/17 for more info.) We had to check in at 2:00 pm, which meant we had 3+ hours to kill at the hospital. Thankfully, the cafeteria had orange jello and apple juice, which she could consume up until 12:30 pm since they were clear liquids. We also did a lot of walking around the hospital, visited the Sky Garden, played card games, visited the gift shop, bought the orange teddy bear, and took many trips up and down the escalator (her favorite part of the day!). The 2 MRIs went well. She tolerated the anesthesia just fine and woke up recovery a couple hours later. She was discharged by 6:00 pm; so we were right in time to sit in Friday evening rush hour (insert sarcasm). All in all, she was such a trooper during the 12-hour adventure! Now that we have that under our belt, we will hope and pray for answers and a direction towards treatment and management of her conditions. I'll be sure to keep you posted on the results and next steps. Thanks for reading and for all your prayers and support! It means a lot to our family.
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AuthorHi, I'm Rebekah! I'm a wife, architect, teacher and mother to 3 amazing daughters! Thanks for stopping by my blog, RAISING ZEBRAS! Archives
February 2018
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