Another Great Scan!

This past weekend we tripped it to St. Cloud for a 10th anniversary getaway. The hotel was great and we had a good time swimming, shopping and driving around to see how things had changed. There were some changes in Masud's American "home town" but it was still mostly the same. It doesn't seem like it's been 10 years since we were driving back and forth between St. Cloud and St. Peter -- or since we moved Masud out of his old apartment. It was good family time and a nice way to relax before a big week, the holidays and the upcoming tax season. 

Yesterday Lyla had a three-month follow-up MRI and after a very long day we ended up getting great news. Our appointment was at 630 am in Minneapolis for a 730 am scan. this has become very routine for us and Lyla did well, even when she got an IV in her hand. Masud and I helped her off to sleep, then went out to the waiting room. After maybe 15 minutes, the doctor came out to tell us they had to stop the scan because Lyla had stopped breathing. Not good news. 

She said that despite Lyla being in good health, and only getting a small dose of propofol, she wasn't able to breathe on her own so they had to bag her for 6 minutes until some of the medicine wore off. They backed off on the meds and when she was stable again, they put her into the machine to get started. Then she stopped breathing again and they bagged her for 8 minutes (think rescue breaths like in swimming first aid). Since she couldn't breathe on her own, they aborted the mission, let Lyla wake up and made sure she was ok before they came and got us. 

We don't know why this happened and were very worried throughout the day that it had something to do with her brain. Because of where her tumor was, it could have been that something else was growing, something had been damaged, etc, but we couldn't know that until they got the scan. Very worried, we waited in short stay until our 10:45 appointment with Dr. Bendel. We waited again at the clinic, but at least Lyla was distracted with toys and a gingerbread house (that she couldn't eat because she had to be NPO for the rescheduled scan at 3 pm).

Dr. Bendel said she thinks Lyla looks great and that she did not think the breathing issues indicated that there would be anything to see on the scan when we finally got it. She suggested we follow up with Dr. Malone the ENT to have Lyla's airway re-evaluated since we never did it after she was de-cannulated.

After the clinic, we went back to short stay to watch more cartoons and color for a few more hours before it was finally time to head to surgery so Lyla could get anesthesia for her scan. the doctor was nice and explained what they would try. As we got her off to sleep again, she immediately stopped breathing and they went ahead and used a laryngeal mask to keep her breathing and her oxygen sats up throughout the scan. Once they were breathing for her, everything went very smoothly. We will need to schedule anesthesia for her next scan for sure. After that, we can do another try at just sedation.

So at around 545 Dr. Bendel came to post-op recovery to give us the news and we were VERY relieved to see that the scan was clear and there was no change from last time. Apparently the radiologist thought this was her best scan yet. Pictures are below.

Pre-Op on the Left. Post-OP, pre-chemo on the Right.

September on the Left. December on the Right.

Notice the little nubbin of white stuff from last time is not showing on this new scan.

Despite being worried about this new complication and what it means for Lyla was are happy that there is no evidence of new tumor tissue. We've got some follow up to do to see why the breathing thing might of happened, but at least we know about it and can plan for it in the future. Lyla was a complete trooper and after not eating or drinking anything for almost 24 hours, she came home and enjoyed beef, rice, tacos, carrots, and a lot of milk for dinner. She got a good nights' sleep and was happy on her way to Faye's this morning. I LOVE MY KID!