Has your child had an MRI?

[mrsfru]

If so, what for? What did it (or can it) show? Was it worthwhile? How easy/hard was it on your child, esp if she/he has SPD?

Thanks!

mrsfru

[starlein26]

My son had a MRI scan of his brain that revealed a tumor growing in his cerebellum. Worthwhile? Definitely. My son was fine with the procedure. Of course, coming off of the anesthesia *can* be difficult. Out of 10 scans, 1 was hard for him.

[sbgrace]

My son had one w/out anesthesia (they didn't want to put him under because of a metabolic condition) to look for the extent of infection spread w/mastoiditis. He didn't handle it well. However, I assume they usually use anesthetic with kids in which case it should go as well as any procedure I'd think. We always prepare Andrew for stuff like that--playing through it at home, talking about what will happen, playing through it afterward too to process, etc.

I had an MRI (closed MRI) to look for causes of some neurological issues and while I thought I was completely prepared I found myself panicking in there when I opened my eyes out of curiosity.

[MotherWhimsey]

my son has had several. we have to do them annually to keep an eye on his brain malformation. All have been sedated, all have gone well.

[KatWrangler]

My daughter has had 6 or 7 of them since she was 4 1/2 months old. They are of her spine and spinal cord. She has a tethered spinal cord.

Worth it? Absolutely. Without it we wouldn't of been able to get an initial diagnosis.

[KCMichigan]

Yes, myself as well.

Both kids were sedated orally. One did fine and the other fought the sedation (she has had 2) and was fairly weepy upon waking, but the actual MRI was fine. Glad we did it. It took longer to prep her (sedate) than the MRI itself. It was of brain/spine.

Mine are super easy, but I am not bothered by small spaces at all (I have had 4 or 5 of my brain).

They were back to themselves after 12 or so hours (sedation totally wore off) and I was fine immediately afterward.

[jondee0]

Michaela's had quite a few, and they've all gone pretty well. All of hers except her most recent, when she was 12 and able to handle it awake, have been with conscious sedation via IV. We had issues with one med they used, one time (Michaela woke up enough to be discharged, but then essentially slept for the next 26 hours, waking only enough to go to the bathroom and sip some water), but the rest of the time, no problems. She's been a little nauseous a time or two when coming out of the anesthesia, but not always.

The IV start has always been difficult for her (she hates it more than anything else). They used EMLA cream beforehand on several likely IV spots, and it did help. She's been given versed orally to help her relax before the IV a few times, too; that helps some, too.

Her initial MRI, of her brain and spine, was very worthwhile; it gave us a diagnosis. And even if it hadn't been able to do that, it could've at least ruled out some conditions. She has continued to have MRIs every 2 years to monitor her spinal cord, and will probably continue to have them on some regular basis throughout her life.

Asking "why" before agreeing to an MRI is really reasonable. I had to get opinions from at least three different doctors (pedi, pedi neuro, and pedi physiatrist) before I could go ahead with Michaela's initial MRI. I think you want to know if the info you can get from the scan can actually affect the treatment plans for your kid, or if it will likely be merely interesting to have.

If you proceed with the MRI, I hope it goes very smoothly, and you get some answers.

Joni and kids, incl. Michaela , 13, with hydromyelia and scoliosis, and Gabe , 11, with Down syn. and autism

[askew]

My DD had one while in the NICU. She was only 3 days old so they did not sedate her fully, just some sort of smelling thing. It went fine, and showed us why she kept having apnea and her head was swollen. (she had a stroke prenatally) It was definitely worthwhile as it showed us what was wrong. Even if it had shown nothing, it still would have been worthwhile to show is what was not wrong while looking for a diagnosis.

[anj_rn]

My DD has has several due to an anoxic brain injury. Yes they are worth it. I have had a few (once fo my foot another for my head), both as a teenager following injuries. I did not have a problem.

Children's hospitals have nurse's on staff trained to prep and sedate the kids if necessary. Older kids can usually do a short MRI without any problems, sometimes thay take a little oral ativan to help them chill. Other kids can be fully sedated.

IME, most kids freak out more getting an IV.

[pimms]

My son had one last year at age 5. We had been talking about doing it for years, but there was no real clear reason, other than exploratory and curiosity because he has a pretty extensive medical history, including a mention of something wrong with the cerebellum in his level II u/s and poor balance and coordination. He had what was a seizure like episode that summer, his EEG showed some unusual activity, that is what prompted us to go ahead and do it. It went really smoothly, he was groggy out of sedation, but actually went back to school later that day. The results showed no abnormalities. It as a relief. And if we had found something, at least we would have known. My Dad was diagnosed with AVM's a few years ago, and they said it wasn't hereditary, but I was very relieved that nothing like that showed up either.

[blessedwithboys]

my ds had one a year and a half ago when he was 5.5 yo. he has rage issues which his dr thought might be from seizures and sensory avoiding SPD. he had a bad fall at about 13 mos where he hit the back of his head, so i guess we were looking to see if there was any lasting trauma from that.

the dr at the clinic chose oral sedation, though our ped had prepared us for IV. they gave ds a mix of benadryl and cloryl hydrate. it was bad, i mean real bad. he fought it soooo hard, it took him hrs to fall asleep and the whole time he was thrashing and kicking and screaming. then he fell asleep and we put him in the machine and his O2 sats kept going waaayy down. at one point they said if it went down just one more point they were calling 911. it was really scary, but he hung in there.

waking up was the worst. my normally rage-prone darling was out and out vicious. he was angry, mean, violent, and completely unreasonable, but that was par for the course. what was different is that he was DRUNK while doing it. it took him so long to come around that i had to keep him him home from kindy the next day, too.

i've been told he should NEVER have cloryl hydrate again, and one dr even sounded shocked that it had been used at all.

so for all that, we found nothing, and now at age 8 we still dont have a dx for the rapid mood swings and rage fits.

dont mean to scare you, just our BTDT.

[mrsfru]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

waking up was the worst. my normally rage-prone darling was out and out vicious. he was angry, mean, violent, and completely unreasonable, but that was par for the course. what was different is that he was DRUNK while doing it. it took him so long to come around that i had to keep him him home from kindy the next day, too.

Blessed, that sounds awful for all of you. It doesn't scare me...it's exactly the type of response we probably would get from ds if we weren't careful about meds! LOL

Thanks for sharing

mrsfru

[mrsfru]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

We saw the developmental ped on Friday...background, ds1 was a preemie, has SPD, low tone, weak upper body, fine motor delays, gastro and cardiac issues....there's more, but it all adds up to kind of a "well, this looks odd...but he seems relatively alright."

We are going for bloodwork to rule out/in metabolic stuff and celiac disease, so we'll wait on that to come back before we proceed.

I really feel like the dev ped likes to see an MRI, esp on former preemies, b/c ultrasounds in NICU sometimes miss brain bleeds, plus she said ds's reflexes are "brisk".

It's really the IV that I think would send ds (4.5 yrs) over the top...I'd say we'd probably need to give him an oral med first to calm him and use the EMLA cream....

Thanks again!!

mrsfru

[mum4boys]

My two year old daughter had an MRI done on Friday. They first gave her some gas to put her to sleep then they inserted an IV to give her sedation.

[Lilypie32]

My son had one because of his absence seizures, autism, and to check to see if he had an Arnold Chiari malformation (brain malformation) as I have it. He was sedated via IV and it went fine. The only issue was the nausea and vomiting afterward from the sedation meds. He did scream for quite a while afterwards too.

[KatWrangler]

Are you sure they didn't give him Versed? Because Versed is nasty stuff. I know they warned us before my daughters 2nd de-tethering. I said we didn't want it.

Well fast forward to a later MRI and they gave her Versed without telling me. I swear it was like she was drunk ALL day long. She had the MRI in the morning and even when she went to bed it was like she was drunk. She was 2 at the time.

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

my ds had one a year and a half ago when he was 5.5 yo. he has rage issues which his dr thought might be from seizures and sensory avoiding SPD. he had a bad fall at about 13 mos where he hit the back of his head, so i guess we were looking to see if there was any lasting trauma from that.

the dr at the clinic chose oral sedation, though our ped had prepared us for IV. they gave ds a mix of benadryl and cloryl hydrate. it was bad, i mean real bad. he fought it soooo hard, it took him hrs to fall asleep and the whole time he was thrashing and kicking and screaming. then he fell asleep and we put him in the machine and his O2 sats kept going waaayy down. at one point they said if it went down just one more point they were calling 911. it was really scary, but he hung in there.

waking up was the worst. my normally rage-prone darling was out and out vicious. he was angry, mean, violent, and completely unreasonable, but that was par for the course. what was different is that he was DRUNK while doing it. it took him so long to come around that i had to keep him him home from kindy the next day, too.

i've been told he should NEVER have cloryl hydrate again, and one dr even sounded shocked that it had been used at all.

so for all that, we found nothing, and now at age 8 we still dont have a dx for the rapid mood swings and rage fits.

dont mean to scare you, just our BTDT.

[OTmama]

Wow - I haven't been here in a long time, sorry this is long...but my 3 year old son is scheduled for an MRI on the 25th.
He had a seizure just one month ago following 5 days of respiratory illness with moderate fever. He was very dehydrated at the time (didn't pee for about 16 hours) but no fever, and the blood work they did in the hospital all came back normal. His neuro check up was also normal, but they want an MRI to rule out brain tumor, anomalies, etc. The neuro chiro I consulted says from my description the sz was cerebellar - it was tonic only and lasted about 4-5 seconds. Our ND and chiro (energy med practitioner) think we can very likely attribute the sz to his illness, but they all feel the MRI is warranted and necessary. I am a bit of a wreck about the drugs - Eli has never taken anything, no vaxs etc, and I am sooooo sensitive to drugs that I am worried about how he will do.

I have called and spoken with the pedi anesthesiologist and he says they will be using pentobarbital to sedate him. (Have any of you had experience with that drug?). I really wanted to try something milder, but he says that Ativan (benzodiazapines...sp?) supress breathing, and that it would be take more of this drug then the barbituate to get Eli sedated.
DS did beautifully (better then his mother actually) in the children's ED when they placed the line for blood draw and hydration (though they never did any hydration). But he may not go for it a second time!! (He is rather obstibate) We are told to expect him to be drunk the rest of the day following the MRI. I have him scheduled for an "adjustment" (spinal and energetic with chiro and Reiki pract.) as quickly following the procedure as possible to help him clear the meds. Has anyone else tried energy medicine for this purpose?

[2boyzmama]

Katwrangler, it's interesting you say that Versed is nasty stuff, because in my experience, Versed is a WONDER DRUG! For Connor is fast acting, gentle, and easy to come out of.

However, he had oral chloral hydrate before his first MRI, and that drug was hard for him to come out of! He started screaming about 2 hours later and the screaming continued for about 3 hours. I called back to the hospital (they discharged him as soon as he could nurse after the MRI) and the hospital said that it can cause stomach pains, or that sometimes young ones get confused from anesthesia and just cry. I don't know...my mommy alarm was big time going off...something was wrong with him. My brother had the "pertussis scream" after a dose of the old DTP vaccine (then he had a seizure a day later) and it reminded me of that (he's 12 years younger than me, so I remember it happening).

Anyway...we now request Versed prior to anything because it works so well for Connor.

[KatWrangler]

I had a terrible time with Gabrielle when she had it.

When she had her pre-surgery class at Primary Children's they did warn the parents about Versed. They said, it can work, but for alot of kids, they have a terrible time coming out of it. Which is what we experienced when she had her MRI.

That is terrific it works Connor. I am glad you had a great experience. Hey, I would use it then.

Originally Posted by 2boyzmama

Katwrangler, it's interesting you say that Versed is nasty stuff, because in my experience, Versed is a WONDER DRUG! For Connor is fast acting, gentle, and easy to come out of.

However, he had oral chloral hydrate before his first MRI, and that drug was hard for him to come out of! He started screaming about 2 hours later and the screaming continued for about 3 hours. I called back to the hospital (they discharged him as soon as he could nurse after the MRI) and the hospital said that it can cause stomach pains, or that sometimes young ones get confused from anesthesia and just cry. I don't know...my mommy alarm was big time going off...something was wrong with him. My brother had the "pertussis scream" after a dose of the old DTP vaccine (then he had a seizure a day later) and it reminded me of that (he's 12 years younger than me, so I remember it happening).

Anyway...we now request Versed prior to anything because it works so well for Connor.