January 16th - MRI #4

The events of last Wednesday started at about 1AM.  Before going to bed, I was totally unable to get Kayla to take zofran.  She was being super stubborn about it.  Bryson was gone to a meeting and I was getting all the kids into bed.  So, I didn't have a lot of extra time to coax her into taking it.  So, at about 1AM, Kayla came running into our bathroom . . . throwing up.  She told me that if she woke up throwing up, she'd take a "pill."  But, as usual, she went back on that offer.  She was throwing up for over three hours every five, maybe ten minutes.  I was just too tired to fight with her.  I told her to let me know if she was ready to take a pill and be done throwing up.

I got up and helped her a few of the times, but then I just went back to bed.  I couldn't sleep, but I just lay there listening to her throw up, flush, rinse her mouth and brush her teeth.  Sometimes she would go back to her bed, but after awhile, she was so tired, she would just lay on the bathroom floor asleep until she had to throw up again.  As I write this now, it is easy to have sympathy for her, but at the time I was thinking that she was just so stubborn and I was not going to spend all night helping her throw up.

I had put a zofran in her water cup, so finally, I was able to convince her to take a few sips of water.  By 4AM or so, I think she had drunk enough of the water/zofran to help the nausea pass.  Ahhh, now I could finally go to sleep - just kidding.  Benson woke up right after I was certain Kayla was down for the night, and he wanted to read stories.  I was up with him for awhile before he went back to sleep.  I think it was close to 6AM now.  At 6:30, Nathan and Lily were up getting ready for school and I heard Kayla throw up a couple more times.  The last couple times, she just stayed in bed and threw up in her bowl.  There wasn't much to throw up anyway, then she'd go back to sleep.

So, then Sadie was awake, the kids were off to school, and Kayla was still throwing up - more regularly again, I think what little zofran she got had worn off.  The only good thing about Kayla's nausea was that her MRI wasn't until 1PM and she couldn't have anything to eat or drink before hand.  That wasn't hard.

At around 8:30AM, I called the clinic to see if they could give Kayla some IV zofran when they accessed her later that morning.  The nurse said that it would be no problem, and scheduled us to come in a half hour earlier, at 11AM.  Great!  Then, in my zombie state, I realized that I didn't have a babysitter for Benson.  I was worried about getting him one for the day before - for clinic day - but I didn't get one for the MRI.  Now I am imagining taking him with me and feeling a little overwhelmed.  I am so blessed to have wonderful friends, though, who are always there to help me out.  I called my good friend and asked her if she could watch Benson.  I also realized that we wouldn't be home when Nathan and Lily got home from school, so I asked her if they could go to her house.  A HUGE wave a relief and gratitude passed over me when that got taken care of!!  

So, I got us all packed up, dropped off Benson off and headed to the clinic.  Kayla threw up twice in her bowl on the way there, but the nurses were able to get her accessed and get her zofran before she threw up again.  It made me tear up a little just watching how loving and caring the nurses are that take care of her.  They are the best. 

Kayla was pretty tired when we got to the clinic, so here she is in the lobby . . . she was curled up so cute that I wanted to take a picture, but she didn't want one, so she put her foot up to block it.

We had about a half hour to hang out at the clinic before we needed to go over to the hospital.  The nurse at the clinic called transport at the hospital to come and pick up Kayla in a wagon.  She was happy about that.  And she was feeling better with the help of the zofran.  We learned that there is a "secret" tunnel between the clinic and the hospital, so we didn't have to go out in the FREEZING cold weather (it has been ridiculously cold here for way too long!).

At the hospital, Kayla got registered and then they took us down to the MRI section.  Everything went smoothly getting ready for the MRI.  We talked to a nurse, the anesthesiologist, and the nurse anesthetist.  Then she went in for her MRI.  This picture is Kayla playing with some magnet toys before the MRI.  She still didn't want to smile. 

The other eventful part of our day was Sadie.  I knew that she had messed her diaper while Kayla was preparing for the MRI, but by the time I was able to change her diaper she had leaked through on to all of her clothes.  Unfortunately, she did the same thing the day before and I used her extra set of clothes from my bag and didn't replace them.  So, she had to go by diaper. . .

When the MRI was done, Sadie and I went to the recovery room with Kayla.  The sweet nurses there gave me a hospital gown to put on Sadie.  We also saw one of the nurses that we have seen a few times before, so it was fun to visit with her.

Kayla woke up fine and we were soon on our way.  I had gotten a call that morning telling me that Kayla's glasses were in, so we stopped by and picked them up.  It ended up being after 5PM before we got home that day. . . so I was also grateful to have my good friend offer dinner to us.   It was a long week. . .