MRI

On September 22nd, we took Mena to BryanLGH for an MRI of her brain. The PT and OT in Mena's preschool class noticed that Mena's delay is largely being seen on the left side of her body. This could indicate that she had a stroke in-utero. The pediatrician took their reports, watched Mena moving around his office, and said an MRI could tell us specifically what part of the brain was damaged or it could rule out brain damage. We felt it would be good to know for sure if she had brain damage. The results said there were no abnormalities! we were thrilled that there is no brain damage at all!

Mena was very brave. She took her baby back with her. We weren't allowed in the room during the MRI; a tech came out to update us a couple times during the hour or so that we were in the waiting room. In this picture Mena is crying as she comes out of the anesthesia.  I'd told her that we were going to have a picture taken of her head at BryanLGH.  I didn't tell her that BryanLGH was a hospital so that she wouldn't be scared.  As she woke up, she kept saying she wanted her picture taken.  We told her they'd already taken the picture and she got upset.  Gene said he'd take her picture with my phone, but this wasn't what she wanted and she cried more.

Then she saw the IV line going into her hand and she kept crying and telling me to take it out.  Finally the nurse did take it out and then Mena got upset that her hand was wrapped with a gauze pad to stop the bleeding from the line.  She kept crying to take it off.  We got her dressed and the nurse came back into the room.  Mena held her hand out to the nurse and said, "take it off!"  The nurse told her she had to leave it on until we got home.  The minute we walked in the door, Mena held her hand out to me and said, "take it off now."

Mena came home with her face mask and a smaller face mask that the staff had used on her baby doll when they explained what they were going to do as they were putting her to sleep.  Both masks are now in our doctor toys and Mena reinacts what happened while she was back in the room for the MRI.