Happy 4th Birthday Travis...You Get a MRI

Travis is enjoying his birthday afternoon MUCH better than the morning.  Although, playing is more fun than a MRI.  :)  The clinical drug trial has a short window to get exams, MRIs, and blood work done at the end of designated courses and today concludes course 9 of rapamycin.  Happy 4th Birthday...You get a MRI.  I'm thinking he'd prefer not to have that "present".  Interesting side note, he had his 4th MRI in Salt Lake City on his 4th Birthday.

Briefly backing up, Travis' appointment with Dr. Viskochil yesterday was good and pretty much uneventful.  Dr. Viskochil feels that T's tibia fracture should heal really good and he's not expecting to see the issues that can happen in NF patients with tibial pseudarthrosis.  Yea!  He feels that T's plexiform is "softer", less nodular than before.  Not sure what, if anything, that means.  The bulge on his left side above the hip appears smaller; however, that may be from Travis' growing or it could be from the rapamycin.  T's mouth sore is healing and all in all he looks good.  We'll have more information after today's MRI and lab work. 

This morning was Travis' end of course 9 MRI to look at the plexiform and a scan of his brain.  Unfortunately, they had to poke him twice to get the IV in; however, he figured out how to work the system to get 3 toys from the prize box.  ;)  While the sedation was starting to take effect, he was saying "I don't want to be 4, I want to be 3."  I'm guessing that was because right when he turned 4 he had a MRI...not remembering he had MRIs when he was 3.  Maybe he remembered that when he turned 3 he didn't have to have a MRI.

They were getting him strapped into the machine and monitors hooked up when I left the MRI area around 10:20a.  The MRI tech brought him out to recovery around 11:40a and he was opening his eyes a little then.  Shortly after noon, we started waking him up and he "woke up" pretty quick.  He drank his juice and was good to do go at 12:25p.  We got home at 12:45p and he finished napping/sleeping until 3p.  Now he's playing and getting ready to start the birthday celebration.

They did MRI images of his pelvis/hip/upper leg and then did the MRI of the brain to check his vestibular system.  The nurses came out and let me know that they were going to do contrast on the brain so he would be a little longer.  When T has his first MRI in Denver, they did scans of the brain with and without contrast to have as a baseline.

Thank you for the prayers.  Happy 4th Birthday Travis!!!  You are such a Blessing and inspiration to us.  We love you very much!