Cleveland Clinic: Day 9

Philippe will have to be sedated for the MRI so he couldn't eat or drink anything since last night. This morning the nurse came in at 6am (4am Utah time!) to give Philippe his medicine. The MRI is set for 11am so 6am was as late as we could push it. She asked me "do you think he'll go back to sleep?" I told her "probably not. I think he'll be awake, starving and grumpy all morning" and he was! I played Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for him, gave him lots of toys, took him for our "walk" in the hallway, took him to the playroom, and gave him a shower. There was a lot of biting, screaming, and crying, but we made it through the morning. 

Hiding under the bed

At 10am they told me they were backed up and wanted to move his MRI to the afternoon, which meant Philippe would have to starve all day. I told them "Absolutely not! He's only 3, he HAS to eat!" The head nurse told me they "raised some h_ll! and got them to keep his 11am slot". 

We went to the basement where they have all the big machines and got Philippe in his MRI outfit: awesome blue paper shorts, and a blue gown. 

I went back to the sedation room with him. They used gas this time because he didn't have an IV. Then they threw me out of the room because I didn't want to leave him. They told me they'd call me in an hour when he was in recovery afterwards. 

I went upstairs to rest, eat, and take a shower while I waited. Joy stopped by and said she'd take all my bags to the Ronald McDonald house for me since they had a rental car. 

After his MRI I went to meet Philippe in the recovery room. The anesthesiologist said he had a seizure after the exam (just like after the PET scan). 

I noticed his eye lids were kind of red and purple. They told me they tape down everyone's eyes so they don't dry out and get irritated when they're sedated. That made me sad :(

What made Philippe sad was when he woke up and saw he had the light wrapped around his thumb. He didn't even notice he had a new IV in, but he hates that little light and was trying to pull it and rip it off with his teeth.

I don't know why it bugs him so much. 

After the MRI we were FINALLY done!!! No more appointments, no more EEG, no more IV, no more sedatives, or vitals checks, or being hooked to machines. All we had to do was get discharged ...which for some reason takes hours! The nurse came and gave me all the follow-up instructions, gave me a re-cap of everything that we'd done, and answered all my final questions. Then we sat around waiting... And waiting... And waiting. After 2 hours I asked, "so are we just waiting on his prescriptions?" Then one nurse said "Oh no! We didn't send for his prescriptions!". I asked if I could take them to the pharmacy myself, but she said they couldn't let me leave without them. Then we found out what we had been waiting for was after the nurse had talked to me and answered my questions she forgot to hit the "review" button that sends the file over so we could actually check out of the hospital. Finally at 5 the prescriptions had arrived, the paperwork was done, and we could leave...

So what if we were only going 2 blocks away to the Ronald McDonald house? It was great to be done with the hospital.

We got to the room and while I was feeding Belle Philippe walked over to the door and opened it and walked into the hall. I didn't know he could open that kind of door handle! He doesn't open our bedroom doors at home. Luckily I got him before he got far.

He was hungry so I went to the kitchen where they have "community" snacks on the counter that anyone can have. I grabbed a pastry that looked like it had raisins on it, and gave him a bite really quick because he was freaking out. Right after he'd eaten it I saw it had NUTS, not raisins! He's ALLERGIC! 

I wasn't sure if he'd eaten one or not. Thankfully , Joy and Brendan had walked in the kitchen. I handed Belle to Joy and asked which direction Rite Aid was because I'd heard it was close. She walked over to the window and pointed which direction. I ran upstairs to my room, grabbed my credit card, ran back downstairs, then RAN to Rite Aid 2 blocks away and grabbed some children's Benadryl. The lady at the register wanted to have a conversation!! I'm thinking "lady, did you not see me run in here in flip flops and jeans? Do you see what I'm buying?! I'm in a hurry!" She saw my id and said "oh you're in the Army" Out of breath I said "yes" and handed her my credit card. Then she said "do you like it?" I said "no". Then she proceeds to tell me about some friend/neighbor/relative person who's in the military, but I had grabbed the bag and was already out the door running back! I ran to Philippe and ripped the box open. Of course the outside was wrapped in impossible-to-open plastic! I finally got that off and unscrewed the top, and of course it was sealed with rip-off-proof, puncture-proof foil! UGH!!! Every second my adrenaline, blood pressure, and heart beat are being amplified! I finally got it open and got Philippe to swallow some. I'd been gone from the hospital not even 30 minutes and TWICE I'd needed the "magic button" I press and a nurse magically appears to help me. At this point I was seriously reconsidering having Marcel fly out to help me!

After that I took both kids back up to our room and didn't leave the rest of the night. 

Philippe got a little bored :( But I knew he was totally safe where I could see him. (This time I used the lock at the top of the door so he couldn't open it again).