3 MRIs Day

Let’s start with my new revelation in the book of Matthew. I happened to turn to it while driving to the appointment and I read about how there were 4 miracles when Jesus dies on the cross. Darkness covered the land, the curtain in the temple tore in two, there was a violent earthquake and do you know the fourth? I did not and now I'm completely obsessed with it.

"The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[e]went into the holy city and appeared to many people."

I have never seen this before or heard about it. Funny how one little verse could give so much hope. Me and the girls talked about it tonight about what an amazing miracle that was! Could you imagine how easy it would be to trust God and beleive!!? So why is it so hard now? Because we can't see our lost loved ones knocking on the front door telling us how amazing heaven is and how real God is? Madison said she would fall over, Alana didn't seem too bothered by it. I truly believe we are witnessing miracles every day, and our family is a living miracle for sure. I have hope in eternity, especially as I read this and imagine all the people who saw these resurrections and were forever changed. Had no question, just believed.

Anyway, we are almost there, it's our 8:45 arrival! On time, for us, amazing. The receptionist politely tells us, “Our tech had an emergency, so we are working on getting another one to come in. It'll be a while. There is still one person in front of you” At first I was like, awwww, then I thought, I will pray for her. I almost asked her name and didn’t. Hold that thought. More to come on that later.

During our long wait, we had a visit from Tracy who was out serving communion to homebound people. She stopped by to see if we wanted to. YES! Super cool. It was good to hang out and catch up and be distracted from knowing this scan is HUGE and having communion in the waiting room just made my day. Such a neat thing.

Finally the guy comes out to get me. We walk and talk on the way and he says how he got the days mixed up as he was covering for someone on vacation and I was like “Oh, I thought someone had an emergency.” Like, oh my, are you serious kind of look? He said that’s a better story he guessed and I explained that I appreciated his honesty. Blown away.

He showed me where to lay, what to do, done it a million times, and we begin with the brain. I’m a little uncomfortable but after about 5 minutes my neck muscle feels like its going to pop out of my body and get sucked into the magnetic field. I just prayed and prayed, thought about other body parts, anything and everything to get my mind to not think about it. Then I hear, moving onto thoracic spine and I explained I was hurting too bad. By this time my lower back was on fire and I was dreaming of ways to bust free. He repositioned me and let me stretch and back in I go. After the next MRI, there was a “moving onto the next”, but guess what, he didn’t see my button press, because he started it anyway!! So I figured I could suck it up and go again without a break. Again, lots of prayers and imagining. Painful.

After the last MRI, I had to get the IV anyway, because guess what, I have 3 more now with contrast. This time only 10 minutes each, but ahhhh. Repositioning was an epic fail and I’m out after the first spine MRI. At least these are shorter. Reposition again and I’m like, lets do this, don’t tell me and just do both. I can handle 20 minutes. And we did it and I finally busted free and got up. I bolted for the bathroom and didn’t even ask to look at the screens. That is saying a LOT right there. Most of you know me and I’m the one who has things on CD before I leave. I didn’t care. I was hurting.

I find Skip on a conference call in the parking lot and plop in my seat, put on the butt warmers and dial La Vida. Perfect. They have an opening and we head home. My sweet friend Michelle is cleaning house and it smells so good! I love getting to see her every other week. She is awesome and I love hearing her funny stories.

I finally get my massage and it was good. I think I could use another one, like tomorrow. Lol. I’m sure that isn’t good for you! It helped me relax a little, and back home I went. Eggplant parm was on the menu for tonight with quinoa pasta, sauce and pesto garlic bread. Num. I was told it was yumtabulous, but Im sure anything fried is amazing. I ate it in lightning speed because I promised Alana she could audition tonight and it was getting late.

Alana and I run out the door for her Mary Poppins audition. Oh, the insane cuteness. Can I just say she is a chunk of adorableness and she was so big and so proud. She was in a group of all 6th graders and up – which likely gave her confidence not having to compare herself to other kids her age – but she enjoyed it! So during that wait, me and my brilliance decides to wait on the hall floor. It was hard and the wall was cinder block. When I went to get up, seize. Yep, there it all is all at once, reminding me I had a nasty MRI today. Thinking back, I think I took a pain pill because of my kidney issues. Guaranteed, I’ll be taking a pain pill for every MRI no matter how long from here on out. Hot bath and kids in bed, now Im blogging with the dog and Skip at my feet fast asleep in lala land. I should go too.

I did see an email not to long ago saying my appointment at MD Anderson with the Brain and Spine Clinic is next Wednesday. I think I laughed out loud. I’ll either change it or better yet see if they can do a phone consult and charge me a doctor visit. I’ll let everyone know when I get the results. I’m guessing it will be tomorrow and I’ll likely call to get them if its after 2:00 and no word. I have a genetic counselor meeting in the morning which should be fun and interesting. I never got the results back from the P-Ten study at Clevland Clinic because my counselor at WellStar left! So I’ve been trying for almost a year to get the results. Not lying.

Hope to get some other tests going so my girls have a sense of what they may be looking at in the future as well as other family members.

Praying so hard, so begging God for clear scans. Tumors bye bye. Gone. See ya. Just need this miracle train to keep chugging… Looking for our miracle. Go #teamnadine you all ROCK and we are #findinghope together!!

Hugs and loves.
Nadine