There Go The Glasses

Hi all,

Thank you again for all your support.

The MRI I went for today went off without incident, expect to say that my sense of humour really made an outward appearance.

Mommy and I said goodbye to Daddy quite early this morning and reaching the N1 at Malibongwe Drive realised we would have to make another plan as the congestion was extreme. We opted to take the N14 and I motored along singing with The Wiggles as we arrived in Pretoria.

We headed off to the MR section of the Radiology department and noted that the previous machine that we used was being serviced, so we were in another room for a change.

I got my sedation and while the sedation was taking effect everything Mommy said to me and anyone else for that matter, just made me giggle. I asked to be put down to do some motoring around, but Mommy explained that I was on too much of a trip to do that, but I did not give up. When Mommy relented it was her laughing at me, as I slipped onto my tummy and giggled and giggled.

Eventually I was given two more millilitres of sedation and I was completely and utterly gone to dream world, not before I giggled some more. Mommy wondered if I was thinking about The Wiggles or another DVD from my collection, or perhaps even my new favourite, the beer ad that shows the man getting a face full of beer (Dad has been trying to film that to upload to YouTube, so watch this space).

While Mommy was placing me in the MRI machine she had the strangest experience, while she is fully versed in MRI etiquette, she wears no watch, her cellphone and laptop are in another room at least 5 metres away, she was not aware that her new reading glasses were quite heavy in metal. She put me in the machine and her glasses flew off the top of her head. Mommy tells me that she had the sense not to drop me and dive for the glasses but once I was nice and comfortable she went to look for the offending items. She found them stuck to the MRI machine at the back of the tunnel in the most obscure position ever. Well she did a bit of giggling of her own, and in the best interest of all our welfare in the MRI unit, felt she should disclose it to the technician. Hettie, just smiled and asked Mom if she really had to use them to read. Mommy was NO, I don’t really need them for an hour. Apparently some glasses do that. Mommy vowed to take the low metal ones next time.

By 10:30, Mommy and I got the CD, report and the pictures to take to Prof. Fourie. We stopped in and actually got to say hello to the Prof. and of course Lizl.

So just to report back to you my fans, after breathing a sigh, the following was mentioned in the report.

There is no significant deterioration since last time, but there is also no improvement. I think secretly my parents are breathing a sigh of relief and gratefulness that the venous drainage on the right has not altered or changed, for the negative in anyway. I’ll have you know that they attribute this to my determination and you all for your prayers and positive thoughts.

In the evening, while Dad and I were catching a few zzz’s Dr Lippert called Mommy and (fulfilled his obligation) gave her the following feedback. He said it is becoming difficult to assess the Vein of Galen due to the number of metal artefacts in my head, but from what he could see was that the Venous drainage on the right is patent and flowing strongly through the jugular. The left is very much occluded and not recoverable. On an anatomical level my brain tissue is free from any damage or lessions.

On the serious side, there are a number of feeding vessels that still supply my AVM causing potential lethal blood pressure to my brain. These need to be closed, but the ‘catch 22’ is that I need to grow some more for the catheter to reach the feeders.

Dr Lippert is of the opinion that as soon as May or June I should go for another MRI to evaluate the venous drainage and the feeders, this is due to the under estimation that was made on the previous assessment.

Anyway, I am wishing you many giggles and good times till my next blog.

Lots of love

Jay-Bee (giggle)

Photo 1 MRI #1

Photo 2 MRI #2 – clearly shows drainage on the left and non on the right (inverted, so its my left drainage that’s been lost)

Photo 3 MRI #3 – here it is quite clear there is no drainage (absence of white vessels on right-hand side of scan)

Photo 4 Sleeping off the sedative after the scan