Max’s MRI

Yesterday was finally our MRI day!

We got into London early and had some breakfast before heading over to the Nightingale ward at GOSH. Max wasn’t allowed any food from 9.30am and he normally feeds every 2/3 hours in the morning. So we were using every tactic we had up our sleeves to keep him distracted and happy.

On the ward they gave us our own room which was useful as we could put all of Max’s things in there. Also quite helpful to keep him distracted whilst hungry and stop the screaming getting to everyone else. Daddy’s funny face definitely helped and he was laughing his head off at times!

He got very hungry and upset but I managed to calm him down and get him to drift off to sleep just in time for them to take use downstairs for the MRI.

I held him as they gave him the general anesthetic and it was horrible. I know it absolutely wasn’t but I just got flash backs to when they put our dog down. Lying there on the floor with him and watching him drift off to sleep. It was heart wrenching, so watching Max go off to sleep even knowing he would be waking up again just flooded me with horrible memories. His eyes going back and becoming very heavy very quickly.

I was ok until we got back up to the room. Then I had to give myself a good shake before we went to get some lunch at the lagoon. They gave us a buzzer so we would know when he was out but we were pretty sure we would be back up waiting for him fairly quickly. Lunch was a bit rubbish but it was food and we sat eating in silence. I think the stress was getting a bit much.

We went back up to the room to wait and about 90 mins later we were rushed down to recovery as he was awake and very upset needing food. I just wanted to run, the lady waited for the elevator and I just wanted to run down the stairs 3 at a time! When I could hear him crying down the corridor it was a sense of relief but also wanting to get in there and cuddle my baby.

I fed him gave him cuddles, made sure Tom got cuddles with him too so he relaxed and knew he was ok. Then we took him upstairs again. He was fairly grumpy for a while but didn’t need oxygen or anything which they were concerned about because of his never ending cold. He had lots of feeds and lots of cuddles and even better than that got a cuddle from the lady who saved him! The Dr from UCLH that had organised the fetal surgery and was with me every step of the way looking after me, making our decision easier and staying in constant contact, came over to see us in hospital. It was amazing to see her, she honestly feels like family. As soon as we saw her and had a big cuddle it was like a family reunion. She hasn’t seen Max since he was in NICU so it was honestly amazing!

What started out as a stressful day, ended on a lovely note. A bit if a long journey home standing on a packed train with a baby in our arms to stop him crying. But we got home, with our gorgeous boy. And we got some amazing cuddles from our awesome twins.