21, that is how many times my little angel, Lena, who is not even 17 months old (13 corrected) has had a CT scan. That is how many times she has been exposed to massive amounts of radiation so that we could see inside her little head. That is how many times the "benefit" of the radiation has out weighed the "risk". 20 of those scans have been in the last 6 months. Last night was one of them.
Last night we (Lena, Papa and I) spent about 7 hours in the Emergency Room. We went there thinking that Lena had a shunt infection/blockage. She had been slightly irritable then all of a sudden she started crying and would not stop. She cried for 3 solid hours. My babies do not cry unless there is something seriously wrong, ever. Really, they do not cry not even a little. The only time Lena has ever cried like this is when she was in serious pain from something being wrong in her head. So off we went, back to the hospital.
The pediatrician on call checked her over and agreed with me that there was nothing obvious wrong and that given her history we needed to rule out a shunt related complication. She was so agitated that I didn't think she would be able to sit still for the CT scan as she normally does. She wouldn't even let me move her, never mind let me put her down. We agreed that it would be best to sedate her with chloral hydrate for the scan. It was not until 20 minutes after we gave her the sedative that she finally calmed and stopped whinning and crying. She got so happy in fact that we all were very puzzled, pediatrician included. She kicked and wiggled and smiled and was her normal happy self, just like that, instant.
We had our scan, she fell asleep. The neurosurgeon was called to review the scan. The good news, no increase in ventricle size, the bad news, ventricle size does not always increase with infection (still a possibility). So he ordered blood work on my sleeping baby. So at midnight, we woke her up to poke her. I got the honors of holding her down while they attempted to draw blood. Good thing the phlebotomist was good enough to listen to me without too much argument, she got a vein and blood on the first try and it wasn't too traumatic. Our night hung in the balance of the lab results. High WBC and we had to stay and tap the shunt and risk intriducing an infection if one was not already present, normal WBC and we go home. A half hour test took one and a half hours due to a computer upgrade but it was worth the wait. No signs of any infection, nothing at all. So we were sent home with no diagnosis, confusion and a smile. I still do not know what made her cry like that, something hurt and I have no idea what it was. I will probably never know. Though I am starting to wonder if she is developing an allergy but that can be saved for another post, soon I promise.