More Worse

To get a clearer view of what was happening in her head, Rosie had to endure an MRI. As we read here, there are some disadvantages of an MRI:

• There are many claustrophobic people in the world, and being in an MRI machine can be a very disconcerting experience for them.
• The machine makes a tremendous amount of noise during a scan. The noise sounds like a continual, rapid hammering. Patients are given headphones to muffle the noise. The noise is due to the rising electrical current in the wires of the gradient magnets being opposed by the main magnetic field. The stronger the main field, the louder the gradient noise.
• MRI scans require patients to hold very still for extended periods of time. MRI exams can range in length from 20 minutes to 90 minutes or more. Even very slight movement of the part being scanned can cause very distorted images that will have to be repeated.

The almost limitless benefits of MRI for most patients far outweigh the few drawbacks.

She was then aneathesised and offered an angiogram. This involves a long, thin, flexible tube called a catheter being pushed into her groin. The catheter is threaded into an artery, and the tip is advanced through the arterial system into one of the two major coronary arteries. X-ray images of the transient radiocontrast distribution within the blood flowing within the coronary arteries allows visualization of the size of the artery openings.

Excapt that her angiogram was on her brain.

Worse

We were shown to a booth, about the size of a bathroom. The family camped out in this space. We had brought a lot of stuffed toys into the room, big ones.

Every hour or so, doctors came and went. Nurses came and went.

At 11:30, it was time to go upstairs.

The penny finally started to drop for Peter when we were shown into the Neurology ward and he saw the pictures of the children with bandaged heads.