Tell me to stop panicking!

[lou33]

My son who is 18 months old and has cerebral palsy is due to have an mri brain scan tomorrow morning and I am starting to get in a panic about it. It's not the results of the scan I am worrying about,because he will be my wonderful funny, beautiful gentle boy whatever it says, but the general anaesthetic. He is allergic to quite a few things, and I just cant get rid of this feeling of dread that it's all going to go wrong. And this is coming from a mum of 4, who has seen her other children through ga's no problem.We have waited since march for this, and were only told by phone yesterday that it was on. We also have to travel a 140 mile round trip because we moved 2 weeks ago. Tell me to stop panicking please!

lou33, presume he has to be very still so he needs to be sedated? Or is it an internal thing?

I suggest you get there early so you can have a good chat with someone about everything beforehand. Try to be calm or your son will sense your worry too.

Good luck, tell us how you get on. HTH. R

Yes Rhiannon he needs to be sedated so he doesn't move. It's not even because I haven't done this before either, my oldest child had one when she was 10 weeks old, so I know what will happen. I just seem to be getting into a complete state. Keep welling up even looking at him. I know I am being stupid and irrational, thats why I am hoping I will get a cyber slap round the face here and be told to pull myself together!!

Lou33- I'm not gonna give you a cyber slap honey. You don't need one and you've been through enough. But your baby will be ok. He's a tough brave little boy and I bet he'll come through things with flying colours. GAs ARE stressful for parents even when you aren't travelling 140 miles and I'm not surprised you're worried. Take care. I'll think of you both tomorrow and hope the MRI scan gives you some useful info that helps with his diagnosis and care.

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Good luck Lou33. Will be thinking about you today.

Lou33, my dd has cp and hydrocephalus and had to have loads of scans including ct and mri,trust me he will be fine , my dd loves all the attention and the fuss she gets when we visit hospital.Although i totally understand how you feel, just because its "just a scan" to the doctors, to you its a huge thing.One thing i will say is be aware of how load it actually is, if you are going into the scan room with your child you will be asked if you want to wear a pair of ear plugs and i would really advice you to wear them, the machine makes a very load clicking sound which stops and starts for about 30 minutes, i came out with a headache. But honestly you will both be fine, good luck.

lou33
do you think that perhaps moving 2 weeks ago has something to do with your worry about this? It must be a really stressful time anyway, so perhaps your extra worry about the ga 'leaked over' from the general stress? Hope it all went well.

Lou - sorry I've only just seen yr post. As you know my ds has cp also and I've been through the whole mri general anaesthetic thing too. Let me know how its gone .. we had to wait a couple of weeks for results , will you ?

Why are they doing the scan ? or are they just checking the initial 'area of damage' ?

Thinking of you, kiss for ds from my ds .

Well thank you all who replied, (I feel stupid for posting really when there are others with much bigger things going on in their lives). On the whole it all worked out ok, ds was a brilliant little star, making everyone fall in love with him, as he seems to be so good at!. He didn't have gas, he had an i.v anaesthetic, which made him scream the place down when they were trying to find a vein (successfully on 3rd attempt), even with the cream on his skin to numb it. I think it was more the fact he hates being touched by strangers, rather than he could feel it. I could have done without the nurse we were assigned though, who felt she was entitled to order my other children around and overrule me (we had to take them out of school for the day), who made my son cry because she was so loud, was generally overbearing and obviously disliked by the rest of the staff. Dh almost throttled her when he was waiting to be taken to recovery and she was arguing with another one about why she wasnt going to take him! He found his own way in the end. Could have done without the detailed list of food allergies he has being written down on his notes (dairy wheat and soya) to be told that the kitchen found it impossible to find him a banana but he could have spaghetti! He ended up with a packet of crisps and an apple - haute cuisine not. Could also have done without the staff in the playroom telling me my children had to be supervised by me or dh at all times instead of them - what are they there for then? Could also have done without being ordered back to the ward with ds when I tried to supervise the other 3, because he was only allowed to sit on my lap by his cot after a ga, and not sit on my lap in a playroom with a balloon.

BUT, the MRI staff were very pleasant, and the anaesthetist was very quick and efficient. I wasn't allowed past the room where he went to sleep though. I should get the results within 2 weeks, so will know if his cp is showing up in one area of his brain or not. If the brain damage is too scattered though it may show up nothing, so we just have to wait and see.

On a lighter note , Copper I love moving house, don't really find it that stressful, so I must be some kind of freak!

I think it was more that my son has fought so hard in his 18 months, and this was a long time coming, so it had become a big thing to me, coupled with the fact that I was driving back to a town I loathe, so I just needed to let go!

Thank you a million times though gals!