Thursday Twink will have a sedated MRA of her brain and spinal cord. I sure wish they could have done this with her MRI (they could have but we hadn't seen the neurosurgeon yet). It is just like a MRI but it will give pictures of her arteries and veins instead of bones. This test is to make sure the stroke she had in utero or as an infant will not happen again. I'm praying we will be able to take the results with us to Boston but I'm not sure I'll be able to get them that fast. I may have to do some last minute running around in order to get the films and the records.
On April 3rd she will go to the cardiologist for an echo cardiogram and that will check her heart to see how it is functioning. This also is to rule out another stroke. They will also go over the results of the MRA if Boston is unable to for any reason. I'm ready for all the tests to be over with and to have some final answers! I keep think we are getting close and then something else pops up. Please pray that Twink will have an easy time with the anesthesia and that nothing new shows up on these scans. I can handle just about anything but if I have to live in fear of her having another stroke I might go crazy! I think the seizure fear is enough for me, thank you very much!
The thought that April is almost here is making me want to go outside! Maybe it is the sunshine today. Boy did that sun fool me! I walk outside expecting it to feel warmer than 30! You'd think with sun shining like that it would feel much warmer - NOT! Shouldn't be much longer though! Oh how I can't wait!
i have been writing comments to you on your email, cheri. thanks for news of these appts. and we will hope it goes better this time. still not sure what i am doing. so here goes. love joan H
ReplyDeletePraying for all of the upcoming tests, that the Lord will give you clear answers as well as peace and comfort in the testing and waiting for the answers.
ReplyDeleteI'm ready for spring too! It won't be long!
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
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Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.