Friday, July 16, 2010

Pink cheeks and bright eyes

We had a very busy first half of the week, with an MRI under GA on Monday, and MIBG on Tuesday and Wednesday. The MRI went very smoothly, we only had to wait for about half an hour from the time we arrived to when we went in. So no repeat of the 5 hour wait of the last CT scan! The hard bit was putting Carys under the GA. She recognizes the mask now, so when she saw it, she really screamed and struggled. It’s awful watching your child be held down and fighting to resist the mask. Thankfully, the gas is quite quick, and she was asleep in less than a minute. The anesthetist was as kind and considerate as he could be. He even had several “flavours” that he could put inside the mask, so I chose chocolate for her. I guess this is supposed to cover the smell of the gas, but I’m not sure it helped much! The scan itself took about 40 mins, and when she woke up, she was pretty upset. It’s like being woken up suddenly from a really deep sleep – who wouldn’t be grumpy! The next day was the start of the MIBG test. On Tuesday, a radioactive isotope was injected and a set of images taken 4 hours later. The isotope must be either very toxic or very delicate, as it comes in a metal covered syringe and must be administered by a doctor. The images taken on Tuesday were more of a benchmark, to have something to compare to. It only took about 15 mins so she wasn’t sedated. Being strapped down in a machine was not a happy experience and much crying and screaming ensued, though we did have “in the night garden” to watch. On Wednesday we had to go back for another set of images taken 24 hours post-injection. The MIBG isotope is taken up by neuroblastoma cells so any tumour cells in the body show up as hotspots on the images. The images are taken from top to toe, so her whole body is scanned and checked. The scan on Wednesday took about an hour, so she was sedated for this with an oral medication that just made her very sleepy, but still rousable. Because she had to be sedated, Carys had to be checked over by the nurse beforehand. She’s getting so used to medical equipment now that she even took the stethoscope disc from the nurse and put it to her own chest, and took the ear thermometer and put it in her ear. The nurse was trying to sweet-talk her, but it was like Carys was saying “alright then, lets get this done, no pfffafing around!” Carys stayed asleep throughout the scan which was good. Sometimes kids wake up half way through and are understandably very upset. When the technicians had finished, we took Carys back to the nurses’ station to wake up. She woke up quite groggy and floppy. She kept trying to sit up then falling down again. She asked to get down from the bed, and when we put her down on the floor, she staggered around like a very drunk person. The nurse and I couldn’t help laughing a little at how funny she looked. We had quite a hilarious trip home, with Carys trying to sing along to the radio and looking out the window upside down! After a good nap, she was back to normal – no more drunken baby! So now we wait till next Tuesday when we have our next appointment with Lisa. We are very hopeful that the results will show no, or very little, residual tumour.
Last week was school holidays, so we went to Sorrento, which is a beach town about an hour and a half from Melbourne. Very dear family friends – Aunty Kathy and Uncle Stephen kindly let us borrow their beach house for the week. Although it’s winter here, and quite cold, it’s still lovely going down for walks on the beach. We explored the ocean beaches and both Tane and Carys loved the big waves and rockpools. It was a bit difficult keeping and eye on Carys as she thought the ocean foam was one big bubble bath and kept yelling out “BUBBBOOOO!!!” and running towards the water. Yes, she does love her bubbles! When we came home, my sister-in-law Nikki commented on how pink-cheeked and bright-eyed Carys looked. The fresh sea air did her (and us) good!