Surgery Week: Monday

I am a little late coming back, but here I am. I need to recount the surgery week before I forget. So, let me start with Monday.

Monday, June 25
The weekend had been a wet one, and Tropical Storm Debby decided to hang around and continue to soak us for a bit. We had to be at All Children's Hospital by 10:00 a.m. for Simon's brain MRI, and the roads were looking bad. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge was closed down over the weekend due to high winds (sustained at 65 mph), and Bayshore Boulevard was well under water. People assured us that if we stuck to the interstate, we should be fine. The interstate and hospital are on higher ground and not prone to flooding. So, we left at 7 a.m. to give ourselves plenty of time. The rain was thick, and traffic was a little heavy. Other than one jerk in a semi who kept trying to speed and pass everyone and flipped me the bird, we had a pretty smooth trip. We made it in plenty of time and were relieved that parking in the garage was free.
Chris and I had been fretting that weekend and morning, wondering how the heck Simon was going to stay still for an MRI. He is a super active child, and an MRI usually requires absolute stillness for 45 minutes to an hour. We made sure that Simon skipped breakfast, just in case they ended up having to do sedation. The other thing on our minds was whether or not Simon had metal mesh in his head from the last surgery. One neurosurgeon told us that they used a triple layer of bone graft, bone paste, and mesh on Simon's forehead. He never told us what kind of mesh, though; and the surgery reports said nothing about it. The MRI tech reviewed the reports and assured us that it would be fine. The surgery was long enough ago that bone would have grown around the plate, eliminating the risk of the thing coming loose. Besides, the choice head metal is usually titanium, which is not affected by the magnetic action of an MRI. Whew!
When it came time to do the scan, we were informed that the test would take about 15 minutes. What?! It turned out that they were doing a short MRI without sedation. If they needed the longer one, then they would have sedated.
They gave gowns for Simon and me, and we changed and headed outside to a trailer. Simon got to "drive" the lift. We got inside and got settled, and then Simon decided that he needed to go to the bathroom. So, out we went. Once we got back, Simon started to freak out a little and cry. The tech assured him that crying was okay and that he would be fine. She put a halo sort of thing on his head, put in earplugs, and strapped about 5 inches of padding to his ears. His upper body was wrapped tightly, and everything was taped down. He wasn't budging any time soon. A mirror was on the halo so that Simon could see me at his feet and I could see his eyes.
The test started and was very loud, even through my ear plugs. I held onto his feet and kept smiling. He whimpered and coughed through the test but was fine. The tech's voice came through a speaker in between pictures, telling how long the next set would take and offering praise and reassurance for Simon.
Simon did great! After the test was over, she showed us the pictures and said that his brain was beautiful. Only one pic was blurry and had to be tossed; the other pictures were saved to the system for Dr. Tuite to view.
We went to lunch in the cafeteria and really enjoyed the gourmet pizza. (The food choices at the cafeteria were simply amazing!) Then, we headed to Dr. Tuite's office. At the appointment, we discussed Simon's history and why we were there. Dr. Tuite viewed the MRI images and then showed us. Simon's brain looked great, and there was plenty of space between his brain and the spinal cord. The MRI showed that Simon does not have chiari malformation! I cannot describe what a relief we felt at that point.
We left the office and went to have his blood drawn for surgery and to have a chest x-ray to make sure that he could get anesthesia with his cold and cough. Then, we headed to the Ronald McDonald House to check in.
At the House, our room was not quite ready, giving us plenty of time to get oriented. We headed back to the hospital to have a thorough meeting with a child life specialist, and then we were back to the House to move in. That process was made more interesting by Chris's severe foot arthritis flare-up, thanks to the tropical storm. Dinner was at a McDonald's down the road, where we got a nice discount from staying in the House. The rest of the night involved getting some rest. As we watched the news, we felt great thanks that we were off the roads. The Howard Frankland Bridge had been shut down that afternoon during high tide. The news footage showed water dashing up over the bridge and flooding one side out. The 6-foot tides were definitely setting some records!