Jul

MRI Time

On Monday it was back to school after a weeks’ mid-term break. It was nice to see my friends again, and I was excited to tell them all about my mini-holiday at Qwantani at the Sterkfontein Dam. My previous teacher, Teacher Sasha, had also dropped off a birthday present for me – a whole bunch of Angry Bird memorabilia. I was thrilled!

After school in the afternoon, Mom went shopping and I came along to offer her moral support and assist with selecting some ‘essential’ items. As a treat I got a Lego Jeff Corvette from Cars 2. In the evening I was left in Dad’s care as Mommy had to go see a client. It was nice going to bed with Dad.

At school on Tuesday I discovered to my horror that Teacher Bernadine had swapped rooms for her class with another classroom; I don’t like change very much – it has a great deal with the huge amount of trauma I’ve suffered throughout my short little life so far. Surprisingly enough though, the different classroom proved to be hugely beneficial to me – it has a much better energy and the layout suits my personality far more. So my stress was short-lived.

In the afternoon Daddy arrived home a little earlier – he had to have the battery on the car swapped; although it was only a few weeks old, it kept going flat. Dad arrived home a little later announcing that the battery had failed its tests, and the fitment centre agreed to replace it. Mommy had a meeting in the late afternoon and when she arrived home she brought with my favourite – pizza!

The Cat in The Hat from Dr Seuss was the theme at school, and in keeping with the theme my face was painted like a cat on Wednesday. I was thrilled. That afternoon Dad arrived home with a Big Headz Elephant for me – from the Woolies we’re collecting stickers, and after 70 stickers we get an animal. I already have the Zebra and Gorilla. Later in the afternoon we met up with Ryan and Claudi at Yeesh. It was so awesome seeing him again, after the awesome weekend we’d spent together in The ‘Berg.

I helped Mom make the stir-fry for dinner by adding my secret ingredient – strawberries! It was so funny watching Mom and Dad eating a stir fry and coming across strawberries unexpectedly! In the evening Mom and Dad took turns to reading Dr Seuss to me. We read The Lorax and then Green Eggs and Ham. It was wonderful.

Thursday’s highlight was that Dad took me to the Haahoo (Delta) Park in the late afternoon. I was having a really awesome play, and I even went down the big tubes on my bottom. However on one of the slides I bashed my head and I howled and howled. Daddy did really well to console me, and went through all the ‘doctor like’ motions that Mom and Dad had been taught. Dad checked my eyes for nystagmus, checked for bleeding, felt my toes and fingers. He gave me the all clear, but I couldn’t play anymore, so we headed home. Despite having a headache, I enjoyed slurping up my spaghetti at dinner time!

On Friday I knew something was up, as the whole house was up early, and I was refused breakfast! Yep, it was off to Unitas for an MRI scan. Although in May my medical team convinced us to delay further closure of my fistulas to November, Mom and Dad insisted that MRI’s be done in the interim, and today was the day. Although I was really hungry, as I cannot eat before being sedated, I was in good spirits during the drive to Centurion. My tummy grumbled from the hunger pangs, and I announced ‘My tummy is talking to me!’

We arrived in good time, and I was given the sedative without much hassle, compared to previous times when I vomited it up again and fought not to ingest it. Despite ingesting the sedative easily, I then fought going to sleep. Initially I was comical in my ‘drunk’ state, and told everyone that my pacifier was talking to me! But I then got to the point where fear crept in and the adrenaline in my body increased. This resulted in the sedatives’ effect being diminished. Mom and Dad told the radiologists this would happen, but needless to say the parents of the child were once again fobbed off because their medical qualifications trumped Mom and Dad knowing me intimately.

I screamed for an hour. As you all know by now, screaming can kill me – the pressure it places on my head could cause the aneurysm in my head to rupture. This is not desirable!

So, to prevent me screaming any more, Mom and Dad were about to throw in the towel and take me home when the radiologists, after protracted calls to the neurologist that seemed to take an eon, they agreed to administer more sedative. I was eventually out like a light and in the MRI being scanned.

The reported result wasn’t great. A fistula is definitely patent, and a call later on in the day from the neurologist confirmed what the radiologists’ report said; a meeting was scheduled for Monday morning where my case would be discussed, and most likely that more surgery was needed. This basically confirmed Mom and Dad’s reservations in May to postpone my surgery, but, as before, medical qualifications trumped their instinct and knowledge of me and my condition.

We’ll wait to see what Monday brings.

The rest of Friday was awful for me. Initially I slept a great deal, but by mid-afternoon I was starving, but at the same time everything I ate resulted in my throwing up. The rest of the day, into the night was basically spent sleeping or getting sick.

I woke up Saturday finally feeling better, and able to keep my food down. This was a huge relief to all of us. It had become freezing cold, with snow in many of the high-lying areas of South Africa, so we put on hundreds of layers of clothes to keep warm. We’re really not used to this!

Mom then went out for the morning to meet with another Mommy that is really struggling with her son’s condition – Mommy does a great deal of support work for other parents of special needs children. Dad and I used the time to go shopping for toys. We headed off to ToyZone at Cedar Square, but after an hour and a half, we found nothing I wanted. As we were leaving we were spotted by Anthony, so we met up with Tanya and Morgan for a very quick chat. It had to be quick as I was starting to shut down – the drugs from the day before were still affecting me. We said our goodbyes and we’d barely left the car park and I was asleep. I slept for 3 hours! Dad and I spent the afternoon after my snooze playing up a storm.

Sunday Dad and I decided to continue our shopping escapades, this time at ToyZone in Benmore Gardens, but not before we had a hearty breakfast. We met up with Granny at the Wimpy in Sandton City – it was great to see Granny again. Afterward Mom and Granny had some work to do, and Dad and I went on to shop for toys. At Benmore Gardens Toy Zone I found a Colin the Crane Thomas The Tank Engine to add to my TrackMaster set. I was thrilled. I also got a white Angry Bird – my collection was now complete. Dad also spotted a box full of junctions for my Thomas The Tank Engine TrackMaster set – being a train engineer by proxy, Daddy’s eyes glazed over and he bought that too. Sometimes I wonder who’s train it really is – mine or Dad’s!

While we waited for Mom and Granny to finish off their work, Dad and I had ice-cream at Häagen-Dazs. It was awesome. I had a really cool time with Daddy. Back home it was straight to the dinning room where my Thomas train was set up. Daddy built me a new track and I played and played. The rest of the afternoon proved curious – Shatzi had been up in the oak tree since the day before and was refusing to come down. Dad used the ladder to get right up to her, but the tree is so big that even the 6m ladder hardly reached her.

Between Mom and Dad they spent the rest of the afternoon try to coax her out the tree. Dad even tried to hose her out with water. He got very wet. Sadly by the time it started getting dark Shatzi was still up the oak tree – we’re all really stressed about her, especially since it has been so exceptionally cold.

Well, that’s all for now.

Love,

Jarrod