Josh Brain MRI

Josh is getting a brain and spine MRI tomorrow.  This is the first time he's had imaging done on his brain, so we would appreciate prayers for normal results.  This might seem a little out of the blue for those of you who have been following his health and saw my recent post about how well he's doing.  He's still doing well - this is just a check - but here's a quick post with an explanation of why they're doing the test and why it hasn't been done before.

Why he needs it:
Josh saw a neurologist this fall for the first time since getting his 4Q deletion diagnosis last year.  The neurologist thought it would be a good idea to check out J's brain, since kids with chromosome disorders are more likely to be born with structural brain differences, and if he has any differences, it would help us to know what to watch for and how to treat problems in the future.  This is just a check - the doctor does not expect to find any particular problem.

Why he hasn't had it before:
The idea of a brain MRI was first floated when Josh was a baby, because J experienced low oxygen levels for a month between the time when he got discharged from the NICU and the time when he had his first post-hospital sleep study and got prescribed home oxygen.  (Don't even get me started on how the discharging hospital let us go home with J still experiencing serious oxygen problems, because there is literally nothing that makes me more angry.)  The neurologist wanted to check for problems related to the low oxygen month, but they couldn't check it in that first year because Josh had metal in his jaw from the jaw distraction surgery.  (And as anyone who has watched lots of House episodes knows, metal and MRI machines do not mix well.)  He got the metal devices removed from his jaw around his first birthday, but by then we had moved to Virginia, changed doctors, and the idea got put on the back-burner (and thankfully stayed on the backburner because his development continued to progress).  But then we moved back to Reno, re-established with a neurologist, and the idea got moved back up to the front-burner.

I will write another post if there are any results to report.  Thanks for prayers!