MRI

I guess getting an appointment for an MRI is nothing like getting an appointment to see the neurologist. The neurologist has a 5 month waiting list! The MRI took only 2 days. So, John had his MRI on Friday. I guess it all went OK, but giving your kid general anesthesia is always tough for some reason. He screamed like never before when they had to put the stuff in his nose. But, everything else went smoothly. We were worried about doing the MRI with his VNS, since there are lots of things that can go wrong if done incorrectly. It made me more worried when they left a message telling us how they knew John was on the keto diet and they were prepared for that. Huh? John has been on the keto diet for over a year. They didn't even mention the VNS, so I called to make sure they had everything straight. They did, thankfully. She even read the MRI "order" to me, as I knew what settings were OK. Still, I brought the FDA warning letter and the VNS physician manual with me to make sure they had it right. It was all unnecessary of course - they knew what they were doing.
The MRI only took 45 minutes, and John was already up when we went back to his room. He had to get an IV just to get him hydrated, then he proved that he could eat and drink so we were allowed to go home. John took a long nap, as is usual after general anesthesia. After waking up, he couldn't stand for awhile and he didn't understand why. He kept trying to get up, but couldn't put any weight on his legs. He regained his strength pretty quickly, but didn't have very good balance for the remainder of the day. It was quite a chore to keep him safe.
I already got the results of his MRI - normal. I think that is good news, though in some ways it would be nice to see something that would give us a clue as to what is going on. Here was the report:

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The myelination pattern is normal. There is good gray white matter differentiation. No intra-axial or extra-axial fluid collections are present. There is no evidence of cortical dysplasia, or migrational abnormality and the medial temporal lobes are symmetric without abnormal signal. There is no mass effect or midline shift. The ventricals are normal size.
Impression: Unremarkable MRI of the brain.
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Today marks 2 weeks that John has been at 480mg of Felbatol. So, we're waiting for the OK to increase his dose again. He can go up to about 675mg day. Since it doesn't appear to be doing anything at this level, I don't really expect it to suddenly start working at a higher level, but you never know.