The brain scan

Chet has been having frequent headaches. We mentioned this to his doctor at his last count check a few weeks ago. (I didn't have a chance to post about that one yet.) She was worried that he might be developing some blood clots in his brain, which is a progressive complication of the PNH. She scheduled him to come back for an MRI, so we headed back down there on Sunday.

We had to be there at 6:45 in the morning on Monday. On the drive down, Chet was asking me about what happens during a brainscan. I teased him and told him that they were going to use it to prove he really does have a big head. The laughter broke the tension, and I did my best to assure him that this was a painless procedure. Then we watched House that night in the hotel, and wouldn't you know it, but the patient needed an MRI. So Chet asked if that was the machine he would need to go in, and I said, "Yes, but whatever freaky thing that happens next on this show while the kid is in there is NOT going to happen to you."

He did have to wear the same lovely gown as the actor on the TV.

While the tech was prepping the movie for him, Chet looked around at the big machine a bit.


Then he had to lie down and get as comfy as possible.


The last thing the tech did was get him strapped down. For Chet, this was the worst part. He is nowhere near being hyper or fidgety, but he didn't like being buckled in and having his head locked in place.

He finally went in the tube, and then I had to leave the area. He was given a blue dye, and the scan took almost an hour. I told him he could tell people that he has a smurfy brain now.

We still don't have the results back, but I am assuming that if the tech had seen anything major she would have alerted the doctor and we would have been called back in to start treatments. We just had to wait for his counts to come back before we could go home. Chet spent the waiting time looking up algorithms for solving the bigger rubik cube puzzles.


His platelets are hovering around 36,000 again, which has become his new normal. His immune system is very low again. 500 would be critical, and he is down to 700. Hopefully that will boost back up again and not get compromised by any of the bugs this flu season brings. (He did get both flu shots at the last appointment I didn't get to post about.)

We go back down in three months for another marrow aspiration and counts. Now that he is 13 he gets to go in the teen rooms, which makes putting up with being poked and biopsied a lot easier! They have his choice of Wii or Xbox360, and he loves having the games all to himself to play.