I was very scared to get the MRI for my son with developmental delays. The neurologist suggested it at 9 months, and I wasn't finally comfortable with the idea of it until 16 months. After speaking with my sister, who is an RN, she told me to call and speak with someone who is familiar with the anesthesiology part of the procedure to help ease my fears. I called the MRI scheduler and asked to speak with one of the nurses. She said for MRI's they routinely just use a "twilight sedative", which is a very light form of anesthesia. They just want your baby to be asleep, not deeply under. Deep anesthesia is used so we won't feel pain, but if no surgery is involved, just a light dose will be used. They used Nembutal for my son.
When they put the IV in him I was upset, of course, and when they pushed the anesthesia into the line I was really crying. I was holding my son in my arms when they did it, because they told me I could comfort him after he got the IV. He had stopped crying when I picked him up, then he looked at me like the medication had just hit him. His eyes kind of looked around and started getting heavy. I cradled him in my arms and pulled him close to my chest and he just fell asleep. I was crying really heavily by now. He was sleeping deeply quickly, and I could hear him snoring a little already. So I laid him back on the table, and they strapped his head and body down to ensure he wouldn't roll off the table. They also put ear plugs in their ears to avoid hearing damage, as it gets very loud inside the MRI machine. They let us say goodbye and then wheeled him off. We were told to be back in an hour.
We came back and they told us he was still asleep. I aroused him by changing his diaper, and he started stirring. It took a few minutes for him to open his eyes, but he was sitting up. The nurse said he went out beautifully, and awoke beautifully. Some kids have trouble waking up, but perhaps this may be if they use to much, or if it was difficult for them to get the child to sleep in the first place.
I was furious to learn that they had used a dye/contrast on my son. I did not want this to be used on him. They said they used Gadolinium, I believe it is also called Magnevist. It has a half life of 6 minutes, so it burns off pretty quickly. I was told it is extremely safe and isn't like an isotope or radioactive. It is used for brain procedures and for children. They said the order wasn't written up to use a contrast, but they wanted to make sure we saw everything while he was out.
RESULTS: The results from the radiologist point of view are that his corpus callosum is smaller than it should be, there is a minimum amount of white matter, and his brain is overall underdeveloped at this time. After the neurologist viewed the images, he said he disagrees about the white matter, but does feel that the brain is a bit smaller than he'd like to see. He says the MRI results do not indicate what the cause of my sons delays are. At best, it can be used as a baseline tool, to compare future MRI's to. We were told to get another MRI in a year to compare growth.
We are still left confused and puzzled. Most toddlers have underdeveloped brains that continue to develop until puberty. The neurologist said our brains aren't really fully developed until our thirties.
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