After a lengthy debate between Woody and I as to who was best placed to teach George about fronted adverbials vs who should sit in with Alex during his MRI scan today, I can tell you my C in GCSE English left me in the seat at East Surrey Hospital! ...let's just say we should all play to our strengths which became apparent yet again when we were making Woody Tiramisu for his birthday tomorrow π¬
Not known for my skills in the kitchen, with Woody always doing most of the cooking, the moment I realised I was grinding in pepper by mistake vs picking up the salt to add a mere pinch as per the recipe, I'm not sure any of us should eat the pudding we created for him as that wasn't the last of my overtired errors whilst making it π€¦πΌββοΈ
As for Alex every blink, every breath, even every lip movement and extended sigh had me on edge! I sat in the room down by his feet while he was having his MRI scan today and watched with pride as he took it in his stride and did unbelievably well! That said, even though it looked as though he didn't move a muscle, with his head in a frame wedged in with extra foam to restrict any movement, they still had to do a number of the imaging sequences again due to blurring from ever such tiny movements...you can imagine my thought's about George managing this for an hour and a half next week π³
Obviously they needed him super still, not least because they wanted to get clear views of the middle of his brain (the Hypothalamus) which, as you can see from this diagram we found on the internet, controls many of our 'automatic' brain functions including temperature, hunger, fatigue, sleep, thirst and hormone regulation. It can be one of the many areas responsible for epilepsy and where Alex's consultant suspects his are most likely happening (albeit they can be anywhere in the brain hence the detailed MRI today) Isn't it amazing these scans can be used to help see exactly where the seizures are taking place!
They also cannulated him and added contrast to his bloodstream which improves the visibility of intricate structural images picking up inflammation, tumours, blood vessels, blood supply etc. much like they do at the Marsden for George's cancer scans. To that point, I'm not sure what was more traumatic for Alex...being cannulated and laying super still for an hour in the MRI scanner or coming home and jumping straight into a Biology lesson learning all about giving birth and the reproductive system (I came into the room just as they were talking about the mother's waters breaking π) Joking aside at least we had a giggle about this today vs the super sad pictures of four-year-old George in 2017 during his first ever round of chemotherapy on this equivalent day π
Between us we've got this.
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