The Hospital Visit

The appointment for the MRI was scheduled for Friday 9:00 am at
Cooper Hospital in Camden. After 2 waiting rooms we were led to the
patient area and a gurney was brought in. My 5 year old son was
scheduled because of some developmental delays in his fine motor skills
and speech. He receives assistance with both in his preschool in
accordance with his IEP. In an attempt to be an attentive parent I
followed the advice of the specialist.

He was born when I was 40; old according to the doctors. I didn't
expect his arrival. After a holiday in Disney, the "Big Guy" decided I
should have a souvenir. Because of my advanced age, I was sent weekly
to receive level 2 ultrasounds to monitor the baby's development. The
doctors were concerned that he was going to be short; his legs were
behind in development. I have nothing against short people. There are
many short people in both our families. My husband asked the doctor,
"You're short, are you ok?" The baby's legs caught up in a few weeks.
The doctors were then concerned about gaps, coroplast cysts, that had
not closed in his brain. Weekly we followed each cyst. The doctors sent
us to genetic counceling where they horrified us with the statistics of
children who have serious conditions who also have coroplast cysts in
their brains. The suggested amniocentesis, a procedure that is risky to
a pregnancy. The accountant in my husband came forward. "Your test
sample is one percent of pregnant women over 40!"
We stopped going to the specialists.

We hoisted our tall, 71 pound 5 year old on the gurney and turned on
the cartoons. It took three people to hold him down while the nurse
inserted the IV. The first attempt failed because he fought so well. My
husband and I resembled oil slicks. His dad's face flushed from red to
white when he screamed, "Please dad don't let them hurt me!" I escorted
my son to the MRI and waited until he was asleep. By two in the
afternoon he was back to hyperactive normal. My husband and I were
worthless for the rest of the day.