Norah and I headed to Children’s today at 6:30 a.m., which turned out to be quite early for an 8 o’clock appointment since the traffic wasn’t bad at all. We were inside the hospital by 7:15, and since Norah couldn’t eat for 2 hours before her test (she got up early and ate breakfast with Ben), we just hung around watching Max & Ruby until it was time for her to drink the iodine cocktail.
It was actually just a tiny oral syringe of iodine, not the kind your mom used to paint your cuts with. She drank it with no problem, but I was surprised to find out that we had to wait 4 hours before she had the scan, rather than 2 hours. The technician also told me that she would have to hold still for 15 minutes per scan, and that there were 3 scans. I obsessed for most of the 4 hours about how I was going to keep Norah still for 45 minutes+.
We went to my office and I got a bit of work done while we waited, although Norah’s hyperactivity makes it hard to get much accomplished. The high metabolism doesn’t help either because every car ride involves a stop to poop. Any behavioral progress or boundries that may have existed before have been wiped clean by hyperthyroidism. My old boss Reyn, now one of our vice presidents, came into the office and she immediately started feeling around in his pockets!
I shouldn’t have worried about how to keep Norah still during the scans because everyone at Children’s is a pro. Diane and Joanne laid her out on the machine, took the initial scan which was just a few seconds, and then 3 scans at 60-90 seconds each. Diane had her hands on Norah’s head just to remind her not to move, and Joanne moved the machine to take scans from the front and each side. The were very impressed with Norah’s ability to stay still and quiet, and so was I. A dozen stickers later (and a balloon), we left Children’s for the second time today.
Norah is headed back with Ben tomorrow morning for a 24-hour scan. The scans measure how much iodine is in her thyroid gland, which will help the doctors decide whether Norah has Graves Disease or Thyroiditis. If it’s Thyroiditis, her thyroid won’t absorb much iodine. Once the diagnosis is made, they will work on the treatment plan. We have an appointment next Monday but Dr. Fleisch just emailed me to say we should have some test results by Thursday at the latest. I hope so.
P.S. When I told Norah that we were going to the hospital she said, “I want to go see Dr. Fleisch. She’s so nice. And her husband is nice too. Ben’s really cool.” Ben’s either a med student or intern or some sort of doctor-ish guy. I’m pretty sure they’re not married. 🙂
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