Bone Scan

Last Friday we took Santiago to Texas Children's Hospital to have a bone scan on his hips, pelvis, and all the way to his toes.  His lower half basically!  Santiago has been limping off and on since mid-January and we can't get to the bottom of it. He has had strep throat and two bad sinus infections on top of spring allergies since the limping first began as well.  After mulitple trips to the pediatrician's office where we have seen 3 different doctors because our regular pedi isn't always available and three different rounds of blood work being done we had to visit a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.  His blood work on all occasions showed some high levels that were inflammation markers.  I wish the blood work could say specifically where the inflammation was in Santi's body and what was causing it but unfortunately it cannot.  So the next step was the bone scan.  It took us about 2 weeks to get an appointment for the bone scan and I was thrilled that it ended up being during spring break so that Hector and I both could go and not have to miss work.  This bone scan was a three phase scan and it took about 2.5 hours to fully complete.  Luckily the machine doesn't emit any radiation so I was able to go back with Santi as well.  I was worried that being pregnant was going to keep me away from Santi during this process. 

Hector and I had been trying to prepare Santi for the bone scan because we didn't want him to be scared.  He has been to a lot of doctors in his little life and he is really catching on to the things that happen at doctor visits - the good and the bad.  We told him that we were going to have special pictures taken of his bones.  On the way to the hospital he kept asking us if he was going to get a shot in his arm.  He knows now that nurses sometimes give him bobos and he says that nurses are bad and doctors are nice.  I knew they were going to have to inject a dye in his arm so we didn't want to tell him no about the shot.  We told him that they may have to poke him but that mommy and daddy would be there with him and if he was brave he would be just fine.  When we were called back to begin the scan he started asking the tech if she was a doctor or a nurse.  I knew he was trying to figure out who was going to poke him!  The first part of the scan, they laid him on the table and taped him down.  They called it putting seatbelts on so that he wouldn't fall off the skinny table but it also kept him from moving so that they could get a good picture.  They had a little TV with cartoons playing that he could watch during the short scan.  Each scan took about 2 minutes for a total of 10 minutes each time.  They strapped him downand took the first scan.  Then came the part he was dreading.  They had to inject the dye into a vein in his hand.  He cried and squeezed my hand while being strapped to the table.  Right after the injection they took one more scan which took another 10 minutes and then we were allowed to leave to go eat lunch.  We had to come back 2 hours later after the dye had time to go to his bones.  Santi got the blue tape with the bandaid underneath after his injection.   We ate at the hospital in the cafeteria, went to McDonald's and ate an ice cream sundae and watched a little March Madness basketball on TV, looked at an amazing electronic train display all while killing time before heading back for the last phase of the bone scan.  Two hours after the injection, we went back and Santi got strapped back on the table for the last 10 minutes phase of the scan.  He did a great job!  The radiologist came into the room after and let us know that she didn't see much on the scan but our doctor would have to give us a complete reading next week sometime.  She didn't say much about the results but Hector and I both are hoping that if she didn't see much then nothing major is wrong with our sweet boy.   The scan was done to rule our major bone infections and diseases so we are hoping for the best.  I'll update more when we get the official results!