Thyroid Scan

Today I took Johnny in for his thyroid scan. Our endocrinologist asked us to set up an appointment to make sure that his looked healthy in an attempt to check all the reasons why his TSH was elevated. We tried out the Katy Texas Children's and were very impressed by the friendliness of everyone and ease to get there. I love the medical branch location, but they are so busy and it sometimes feels like you get lost in the shuffle. At the Katy location, every single person we passed smiled, said hello, and  asked how we were doing. Amazing. 

For the actual scan, they had a bed set up for Johnny to lay on with sparkly lights on the ceiling and wall behind his head to help him be motivated to extend his neck out for better views. This only worked so much and we had to get a flashlight toy that was shaped like a lion and roared to help distract him as well. I tried to pair enough force to keep his arms out of the way with the perfect amount of gentleness so he wouldn't freak out while the tech got her pictures. It didn't necessarily work because Johnny hates being restrained (probably our fault for never swaddling him) and he slowly got more and more worked up. 

You know you are a good mom with a kid with special needs (or even an occassional special need) when you sing for them in public. At least that's the case for me. I hate singing in public. I am so self concious about it, I even mouth the words to praise songs in church. But in order to calm him down I sang. In front of the tech. Repeatedly. Johnny loves the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" so I alternated between that and the roaring flashlight. I do what I can. 

The tech had to get several shots from different angles and she was good about giving Johnny a break at one point to get her last few pictures. One of the hardest parts about the thyroid is because of the location in the throat, they can't get very good pictures when they are talking or eating or crying. We finally gave him a bit of his bottle, extended it and thus stretched his neck, and she was able to get the last few pictures in between gulps of milk. 

All in all, I think he did great. We got the pictures we needed and the information was sent along to the doctors for them to look over. For now, we wait and see. 

I obviously got zero pics during the procedure (leaning over that table was a workout), but her is Johnny, calm as can be and chillin' out after he was done. I love his crossed feet!