Worthless MRI

As I write this post, Scarlett sits on a Emergency Room hospital room bed connected to an IV which is rehydrating her from the miserable morning, afternoon and evening she's had barfing all day. Then to make matters worse, if you read my previous post you know that Scarlett's MRI was completely worthless.

Right after the MRI nurse released her (even after she puked), we immediately walked over to the Scott and Laura Eller Congenital Heart Center to talk to Dr. Pophal. I was actually very upset that no one warned me that this might happen. I was mad because Dr. Pophal didn't say "we may or may not get the answers we need depending on whether or not they are able to take the pictures they need"... I'll be honest, I was livid. So I wanted to know what the heck we were gonna do now that we don't have the answers to the questions we went in for the MRI to begin with.

Dr. Pophal was very professional and talked to us and explained everything to us. What happened was like the movie "The Perfect Storm". Meaning, the reason they weren't able to finish the MRI and that all the pictures came out black (full of shadows) was because the wires holding her sternum shut combined with the clips on her ribs and the coils in her heart are just enough to cause the MRI machine to be unable to take quality pictures.

So basically there was absolutely to way for Dr. Pophal to know that an MRI would be completely worthless. Not only that, but it almost makes no sense. Dr. P said that they have MRI'd kids with more metal in them than Scarlett just fine...no problems. So it makes no sense why it wouldn't work for her. But like the movie The Perfect Storm, all the factors had to be aligned to cause a storm like that, well that's just like Scarlett's chest.

Unfortunately, an MRI isn't possible. So, the whole purpose of the MRI was to quantify how much is leaking and how much pressure on her right ventricle. Now, to get these answers, we have to rely on echocardiograms and CT scans. I talked to Laura (Beth's replacement while she on maternity leave) said they have a game plan. Which includes weight checks every 6 weeks and an echo every 3 months. Plus we need to be aware of heart failure symptoms.

It just really sucks that she's now super sick from a worthless MRI. They're admitting her because she's been barfing all day and now has a fever of 102.5 not only that, but she's so dehydrated she's not even producing real tears when she cries. The ER doc is going to admit her for observation. We'll be up on the 7th floor PCTICU. BTW: I'm typing all of this from my hand held Blackberry. Wish I had my laptop here!