MRI

Maggie's MRI is done, but not without some struggle.
We arrived at 2:30 for her 3:00 appointment.
Here's how the conversation went when we arrived.

Heidi: "Are we allowed to feed Maggie if she gets hungry while we wait?"
Receptionist: "Well, I think so. Has she been sleep deprived today?"
Heidi & Eric: "What?"
Receptionist: "She is supposed to be sleep deprived for a whole day."
Heidi: "No one told us that. They were supposed to be sedating her."
Receptionist: "Oh, no, we don't sedate babies here."
Heidi: "But she is only 14 months... how is she supposed to stay still long enough?"
Receptionist: "If you don't think she will fall asleep on the table then y ou'll have to have your
Pediatrician sedate her and then come back..."

To make a long story short... it took over an hour to figure out what was going on. Finally the office told us that they would make an exception and sedate Maggie but we would have to come back another day. They wanted to try and do the MRI with Maggie awake first, though.
We were praying that it would work, but in our minds we seriously doubted that she would be able to stay still long enough.

SHE DID!

Maggie continues to amaze us and we are so proud of her. They strapped her down, put cotton in her ears, all while Eric was by her side. I couldn't be in the room because I am pregnant. Maggie cried pretty hard when they strapped her head in place and she couldn't move. But after a few minutes our precious little girl went to sleep. They were able to get all the pictures they needed and we are so thankful! We should hear results by the end of next week sometime

UPDATE: Our pediatrician just called and said that Maggie's MRI results were faxed to his office! Everything is completely NORMAL! Praise God!

Thank you, again, for your prayers and your love!God's hand was on Maggie the whole time and that's the way it has always been!

Interesting Weekend..

Our weekend started out pretty confusing. Maggie woke on Saturday morning around 3:30 AM in a lot of abdominal pain. We called our pediatrician and we gave him her symptoms. (Now I am going to get graphic with details of POOP!) Our pediatrician asked how her bowel movements had been. She had had three poopy diapers on Friday, all of which were pretty firm, but somewhat normal for her. The pediatrician said that we needed to take Maggie to a Children's hospital ER to be checked for Intussusception- an accordian-like collapse of her bowels. If left untreated it could be really bad and would likely need surgery to remove parts of her bowels.

So, off to the ER at Loma Linda we went. She was running a slight fever when we got to the ER so we were also concerned that she might have another Urinary Tract Infection. During this whole process Maggie was in a lot of pain. Her tummy was almost rock hard and she was so uncomfortable. The first thing they did was try to put a catheter in to retrieve a urine sample. Luckily she showed no signs of a Urinary Tract Infection.

(update: May 16th Loma Linda ER called and Maggie's urine culture-a three day test- came back positive for a Urinary Tract Infection. She'll be put on antibiotics for the infection)

Next they took an X-ray of her abdomen. The results of that X-ray showed that she was horribly compacted with a large amount of stool. Next up was a little rest for Maggie as by this point she was exhausted from crying and from the pain. She was awakened with an Enema! The amount of stool that came out was a little scary, but we were thankful for a little relief for her. The doctors were still willing to do an Ultrasound of her abdomen to make sure that she wasn't suffering from Intussusception. The ultrasound was completely normal, but they did see that she still had a large amount of stool in her bowels. So, one more Enema did the trick! It is a little scary to think of how much POOP Maggie had stored in her bowels.

Now, the diagnosis for all of her pain and stool was nothing more than a change of diet (which I think is funny since she eats nothing more that Formula, baby food, cheerios and veggie puffs... it's not like we're feeding her cheese all day long!)

But, after some research on my part and some discussions with the doctor, Maggie might have weak bowel muscles. The reason I think this might be related is because Maggie is hypotonic.

Hypotonia is a symptom... of what? We don't know yet, but her MRI and blood tests should hopefully lead us in the right direction. But hypotonia is a lack of muscle tone that could be through her whole body. So, for now, Maggie is on a diet of formula, prunes and anything else that can help with her "movements!"

More Tests

Maggie and I met with the neurologist this morning
and he has suggested... more tests!


First, he would like to have an MRI taken
to make sure nothing is wrong with Maggie's brain.

Second, he wants an extensive analysis of Maggie's
DNA/Chromosomes to look for any chromosomal abnormalities.

Third, he has recommended we get in touch with the
Early Start Program to see if Maggie qualifies for in home therapy.

We will now begin the waiting process. Waiting for the referrals to be cleared, for the doctors to be notified and for the appointments to be made. All in all, if any of these tests come back with abnormalites there isn't much that can be done. Maggie will still be on her own time table.
She is a bright blessing in our life and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with her... exactly how she is!