Trafton's MRI

Today Trafton's MRI went very well. It actually went better than I expected - I didn't even cry once! We were told to report to the pre-surgery check-in area at 6:15 this morning. It was quite an early morning for us. We waited until 5:50 to wake Trafton up quickly, the we got him dressed and in the car in less than ten minutes. He was pretty cranky that he couldn't have any water (he always has some from his sippy cup as soon as he wakes up - usually while he is still in his crib even), but by the time he was in the car, he was quietly sucking his thumb.

I was surprised by how busy the check-in area was. It kind of looked like a ski lodge with all the lockers ready for patients to use. It was a huge area and already bustling at that early hour. We were given a beeper (like the ones used at Panera) and called within 15 minutes. We went with a nurse to do some paperwork and then were told to go back out to the waiting area where we would be paged again by a nurse ready to take us to the pre-surgery area. We waited only another ten minutes and were taken up in an elevator so that Trafton could be sedated.

We were given a bed area for Trafton and surrounded by three nurses, ready to get Trafton set up. Everyone was soooo nice - it was all such a pleasant experience because of that. We undressed Trafton and put on a shirt gown and pants - like little scrubs. They had a bunch of really good and new toys that Trafton was completely entertained by while everything was being prepared. He was remarkably good throughout the entire event, too! The anesthesiologist came and asked me a ton of questions and then explained how the sedating process would work. I got confused here, because Dr. Sumfest, the urologist, explained that Trafton would be mildly sedated using propophol and would be expected to breathe on his own. The anesthesiologist explained that he would be administered an oral medication, versed, to get him nice and relaxed now and once they were in the MRI area he would be placed under heavy sedation and would not be breathing on his own. She explained that due to the length of this MRI, two back to back 90 minutes examinations, the propophol wouldn't be enough to keep him sedated the entire time.

So, she gave me a squirt dropper of the 'happy medication' and Trafton took it happily. He continued to play in Daniel's arms, but his head got a little floppy and his eyes got a little unfocused at times. Then one nurse took him on his bed and us down a floor to the MRI area. By this time it was 7:40. We arrived in the waiting area and she told us we could give him a kiss goodbye and that we would see him again in about three hours or more. While were in the pre-surgery area, one of the nurses also explained to us that after the MRI, Trafton would still be sedated and we would then accompany him to the post-surgery recovery area where he would slowly wake up over the course of two to three hours.

We waited in the waiting room and sure enough, right on time, at 10:45, Trafton was wheeled out in his bed. Except he was wide awake and hardly seemed groggy at all! This was amusing because we saw many sedated patients (kids mostly) come in and out of MRIs and every one of them was still completely asleep when they were wheeled back out and up to post-surgery recover. Not Trafton, of course. We went with him up to the recovery area and stayed there while they monitored him for about an hour. He was treated like a king. Did I mention how incredibly nice every single person we met was?! How fabulous! They propped him up in his bed, surrounded him with pillows, and gave him applejuice (he drank 4 cups before they finally had to cut him off!) and graham crackers. They pulled out a TV that he could watch cartoons on, too. Every single person that walked by told him how cute he was. He was pretty happy except for each time he would look down and notice that he still had an IV in his ankle area. That made him pretty angry, but we tried to keep his mind off of it by covering it up with blankets. He also had a catheter in, but they removed that shortly after we arrived in the recovery area. Oh, and the nurses also sent him home with an adorable stuffed caterpiller. How sweet :)

We were out of the hospital and on our way home by 12:30. Trafton drank a smoothie and had a few light snacks and then we decided we would see if he wanted to take a nap. The nurses told us he would probably take a pretty good nap in the afternoon. He was still sort of wobbly when he walked around - like a little drunk man :) Very cute! He happily laid down and about 20 minutes later he was up chattering and walking around his crib and throwing the stuffed animals out and onto the floor. He was ready for the rest of the day! We got him up and we spent the rest of the day lounging and taking a walk outside. He developed a fever in the evening, but we were told that would most likely happen and that it was nothing to worry about.

In all, the whole experience was not too awful at all and Trafton did great!

Our follow appointment with the urologist is scheduled for next Tuesday morning, so we'll know how things are looking at that time.