Better Than Yesterday

Today so far was better than yesterday. Steven woke up feeling much better. He had an early morning fasting blood draw, mostly endocrine stuff, but today the alarm went off and we made it on time.

After the blood draw we headed for the cafeteria when it dawned on me that we had a car and three hours before his next appointment, so we could go have a real breakfast.

Buns On The Run it was. Yummy homemade omelets and biscuits made from eggs that don't come from a plastic bag or a carton.

The cafeteria meal would have been free, as St. Jude gives us a meal allowance when we are visiting, but some things are worth paying for, and we've had enough cafeteria food to last us a lifetime. The owner remembered us from when we were staying at Target House.

Back to the hospital, we visited with Dr. Gajjar. Steven's spinal MRI was clear and Steven is looking good.

Then, the Main Event, the MRI of the brain. The MRI that was broken yesterday was working today, but the automatic injector that puts the contrast in at some precise moment was still broken, so the MRI technician needed to come in and do it manually.

Steven fell asleep as usual. Steven has never needed sedation for an MRI, he lays as still as can be, but midway through his scans, the technician came in and said that he was moving his head.

She slid him out of the tube and padded his face on both sides with foam before repeating the last two scans. They finished him up, but she called me in and showed me how much his head was moving, many of his scans are blurred.

He was asleep, so we're not sure what was up. We're a little concerned the scans may not be good enough and would need to be repeated, but time will tell.

So, no results yet from the brain scan. Tomorrow is his lumbar puncture and continuation of his eye exam. Today we are done before 5:00 PM so maybe we'll go out somewhere tonight.

- Kathleen