We push for Natalie

We celebrated Natalie's 4th Birthday a day early! We went to Chuck E Cheese and played, ate mediocre pizza, and spent a ridiculous number of tokens. All the while the anticipation of the MRI ahead looming.

With an 11 am arrival time was a challenge due to the fact that Natalie would have to be NPO 6 hours prior. Since I didn't think she would take kindly to a 5 am breakfast I opted for plan B...keep her up ridiculously late with the hope she would sleep late. Plan B worked like a charm. We woke her up at 0930 and left the house at 10 with no request for food or drink. With her brand new Nintendo DS in hand and a ball of nerves in my stomach we headed down I29 toward the test we have long awaited.

Natalie was not keen on any part of the trip to the hospital. After 10mg oral Versed she loosened up and the Anesthesia crew was able to wheel her back into the MRI room to sedate her further. Approximately (and probably much later) one hour later they reemerge with our very groggy little girl rolling down the halls like a tiny china doll in over-side bed. All the while my heart has been aching for the results.

Shortly after they drop us off in the Post Anesthesia waiting room a nurse reemerges requesting Natalie's parents. We barely made it though the large double doors and can hear the whimpering of a scared and delirious Natalie. They call this "Cevo Delirium". Cevo is the gas they use to help get children sleepy prior to deep sedation and this can cause a type of hysteria when they re-awake...good to know. I scoop her up and rock her on the side of the bed, the crying slowly subsides. Within a few minutes we are cleared to go and are back in our car anticipating a long wait before we hear results.

Around 6:30 pm while sitting down to dinner with the family I get a phone call. It's the Dr. The results from the MRI I back, and aren't as promising as we had all been praying for. Natalie has a cyst/lesion on her spinal cord from level T5-T9 (approximately the level of her shoulder blades), she has a mass on the outside of her spine (the mass I had originally found), a cyst in her kidney, and a cyst/lymph node in her pelvis. In case that was all overwhelming to you don't feel bad it was to the pediatrician also. The spinal lesion was well above the original area of interest, the image of the lump on her spine was inconclusive, and then there were additional incidental findings elsewhere.

While I had been praying/hoping/and begging for benign results, my heart sank with the findings. The pediatrician recommends and MRI of the brain and CT of the abdomen and pelvis. The finding were reported after 6pm and therefore tonight the plan of action is limited to waiting. So we wait.

In the mean time I take the report to a family friend who is an MD that can help interpret the results. After breaking down the report and grasping the gravity of what is happening inside Natalie's tiny spine it appears as though she will be needing a Neurosurgeon.

Tomorrow we push. We push to get her in with the best Pediatric Neurosurgeon we can, we push for additional tests, we push for answers. We push for Natalie.