MRI Next Saturday

Tessa has been scheduled for her last MRI next Saturday, May 7th at 7:30 a.m. at the OU Children's Hospital. The cochlear implant that Tessa will be receiving has a removable magnet, but it would still be an invasive procedure to ever remove the magnet if an MRI was ever needed, so we've decided to get one last MRI done before her surgery in June.

The things we learn......it's funny, it was a bit of a shock the day Tessa's neurologist told us 'no more MRIs after cochlear implants'...but when you only know it as "MRI" and not "Magnetic Resonance Imaging"...you don't put 2and2 together very quickly. And really, it wasn't even knowing what MRI stood for that helped us understand...it was the explanation that the machine would pull the magnets out of Tessa's head if she ever had a scan done with her CIs. Anyway, so for those of you that didn't quite understand why it's her last one either...I feel a little better about my ignorance ;)

The MRI may or may not show or tell us anything different from her original one they did when she was hospitalized and diagnosed in July, but we would just like to know that we have the most current one that we can, while we can. Tessa's doctor said we can sit down and compare the first scan to the second one and educate ourselves a little more about what the images tell us at this point in her life. I remember telling (joking with) the doctors at the hospital in July that I wanted them to know that I thought they were all full of crap because I just couldn't believe there was anything wrong with our baby girl. We never saw any images back then, we were processing through so much information at the time, that I didn't really need to see proof of the calcifications on her brain. I am thankful for the opportunity now though, to educate ourselves and also to have images for comparison...who knows what we'll see :0)

We need to make sure Tessa stays really healthy between now and next Saturday, so for those of you that will add her to your prayer list over this next week, we'd be grateful! The scan itself will take about an hour and then they will be monitoring her afterwards. There's a chance for some complications with the anesthesia because of Tessa's experiences with RSV. If there are any signs of breathing complications, they will be able to admit her and then monitor her overnight, if necessary. We are praying that she handles everything just beautifully! If she doesn't do so well recovering from this 1 hour procedure, because of her history of RSV, we will definitely have a few more nerves wrapped up in the anticiaption of her recovering from the 3-4 hour long CI surgery in June.

We're not really stressed, just realistic that there is a chance she could be admitted next Saturday, just like there is a chance she could be admitted June 7th after her surgery. She's proven how strong she is...and I can hear her now..."Quit worrying mom...I'll be fine!" ;)

~Whitney