Just a quick update because there are chocolate covered peanut butter ball-things screaming my name. And a glass of sauvignon blanc. Yeah baby. Things went really well the last 2 days. On Thursday we arrived at clinic at about 10 and saw our fab Nurse Practitioner Denise. Reese has gained a full kilo and has grown 3 cm in the past 3 months! We then headed to the IV room so they could put an IV line into Reese’s hand to a). draw blood, b). give her an injection for the MIBG scan and c). contrast for the CT scan. As expected it hurt like a sonofabitch. But once the needle was in and things taped up all was fine. Then we went down to Nuclear Medicine, only 5 minutes late, to get the injection of the radioactive isotope for the MIBG scan. This one really hits Reese hard. She can’t explain how it tastes but as soon as the stuff is put in the line in her hand she FREAKS out. Screaming, crying, heaving. It’s like the taste causes a physical reaction, almost pain. It was the worst part of the past 2 days. But it doesn’t last long at all. Then the amazing team there were able to bump Reese’s CT scan to an hour earlier. Love that! We went in and Reese was a rock star. Last time she wasn’t at all happy with “the big machine” but this time she was all, whatevs, this ain’t nothing but a g thang.
Today we had the MIBG scan. It’s a long one, about an hour and 20 minutes and requires the patient to lie very still. The last 20 minutes is one picture, and if you stop in the middle you have to start over again – take notes, this is crucial to the story I’m about to tell. So before we go to the room I take Reese for a final pee. Then I said to the nurse and the technician, let’s just go through, no breaks, because once Reese is settled in she’s good. If you take her out in the middle and she gets a taste of freedom she won’t want to go back in. Okay, cool. Reese was doing SO WELL. Totally chill, happy, relaxed for the 1st hour. Only 20 minutes to go. Those golden minutes where you can’t stop the images. Remember I said to the tech that we will NOT take a break. So before we started the continuous image stage he pipes up and says let’s give Reese a pee break. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I was all, really dude? Did you have to say that? Reese of course was super excited over this prospect. So off to the bathroom we went where of course Reese did not need to pee. Flash forward 2 minutes and Reese is strapped back in and the machine is fired up. While it was whirring away Reese was formulating a plan on how to get the hell out of the machine again. She was very quiet, very calm. The kid was scheming. So with only 9 minutes left she pipes up in her little voice…I have to poo. We were all REALLY? NOW? Can you hold it for 9 minutes? Please? Let’s just finish? I’m begging and pleading because I didn’t want to start this phase over again. But Reese was getting increasingly agitated. And since she’s only been potty trained for 6 months I’m not quite sure of her limit. So the machine was stopped and Reese and I trotted off to the bathroom again. 10 seconds into it Reese gets a big grin in her face and says “heeheehee, there’s no poops mommy.” WTF?!?! ARE…YOU…SERIOUS?!?!?! You have got to be shittin’ me sister! So we had a little chat about telling lies / stories. We went back in and I had her tell the nurse and technician that she was telling a story and that she was sorry. She did this with a “I’m pretty damn proud of myself for screwing with the 3 of you” smile on her cute little face. GAWD! So we started again and it ended without another incident. As mad as I was I was pretty impressed with her craftiness. Now I know I need to intensify my BS radar.!
We find out the results on Monday – NED NED NED!!!!
She is a clever girl!!