An MRI. It’s one of those appointments where you should never even have the thought or question within a family of who’s appointment it is. Is this one for Dad or for his two-year-old daughter? But that has been our past month.
I overlooked a piece of mail because it was addressed from “medical imaging” and I just assumed it was for MY MRI, with the thought not even crossing my mind that it may be in reference to Madison’s exam, and I didn’t bother to open it.
It’s not right that a 2 year old should have to go for an MRI. It’s not right that she should have to be sedated with a team of doctors around her while the imaging is being done. It’s not right that she has to be put through this and expected to be so tough.
Some would argue that it’s not right that I had to endure a 75 minute MRI myself - thinking the whole time about how Madison would be stuffed into a similar if not identical machine just days after me. But it can be justified a lot easier that perhaps I’ve been too rough on my body for the past three decades. Or maybe it’s because of all the negative environmental factors I’ve endured in my life, that my body is now catching up and starting to fall apart. People don’t tend to flinch or even be too concerned when a 30 or 40 year old share they are going in for an MRI. But mention the fact that your two-year-old is getting this test done, and people get wide eyed and concerned. The scariest part is the fact that no two-year-old can lay there still enough for the duration of the exam, so they have to sedate them.
But she didn’t complain once. She didn’t even make a sound. The anesthesiologist slipped the IV into her hand and she didn’t even flinch.
She has taken this diagnosis (and all that comes with it) better than me, because it’s not a diagnosis to her - it’s just her life. And she lives her life so contently.
Once again, she was just super excited to be out on another multi-day road trip with Daddy. We shared lots of smiles, stayed in the Ronald McDonald House together, made some new friends at 6:30AM in this really big building and then we went out again and soaked up the Vancouver rain. In her mind that’s what happened. In my mind she was getting the biggest, scariest test of her life done.
It’s just a huge reminder to me (and maybe each one of us) to not focus on the diagnosis or even the disease... but to focus on the person. Focus on Madison and what a beautiful little girl she is.