United Brachial Plexus Network

Hi all,
My son is having a 3D CT Scan this Wednesday. He is 2 and a half with ROBPI (Erb's). It seems as though he will have to be sedated, so we are having done at the hospital.

Any tips on what I should do to prepare my son, or what I should be prepared for. Anybody want to share their experiences? Did you find the procedure essential and important to do?

Thanks so much.
Maggie

Hi Maggie,

The information found on the 3D CT scan was invaluable. Each time we did it, we learned more and more.

About the sedation: depending on what type of sedation they use, Noah may have an aggressive reaction to it. You may think that he is in pain or freaked out or really upset and fearful, but it might just be the medication itself. Some children get the meds and go into the behavior pattern, some kids also have the behavior when they come out of it. So be prepared for this. It was our experience that our daughter didn't remember a thing about her reaction and was fine just hours later, happy as a lark. I've heard from others that it was the same for them. So I'm telling you this so that you don't think Noah's being traumatized.

It is a very short scan. They will spend more time just getting him on the table and velcro'ing him down then the length of the test. Honestly it might be somewhere between 2-4 minutes. best of luck.

Maggie:

My son had one done in July before his surgery, he was 2 then and is now 2 1/2. The scan was done around his naptime and so he took a little longer to awaken. Of course my mommy instinct freaked. But he was A-okay. It took a total of 15 min, and that included walking to and from the room. I actually made the mistake of holding him while they gave hime the knock out medicine and it was a little scary. I won't make that mistake again. The test was very helpful for us. Best of Luck.

Ash (mom to Brayden2 1/2, ROBPI, GA)

Maggie,

We had Kd do the 3d cat also the first attempt was at a regular hospital and they wanted to sedate her and we had a major problem with that. So we scheduled one here at the childrens hospital and they did it without sedating. It is only about a 10 minute procedure and they knock them out for like 3 hrs.

I do think they are great . The 3d is so cool you can really see everything. Good luck oh and ask them if they have the drink sedation we called it goofy juice instead of a regular IV.

Hi everybody,

Thanks so much for your advice and kind words. Noah did really well, although they did decide to sedate him, but only with Versad. This means he was awake for the entire procedure.

I didn't get any results right away, and the hospital did not send them to the doctor's office. After a bit of harranging, I did manage to get them faxed over. I picked them up from the doc's office and was shocked to read a report on his LEFT arm (Noah is ROBPI)! Needless to say, I was quite upset.

It seems that what happened is that when they positioned him in the machine, his left shoulder was hiked up a bit (I think this is what happened, as it seemed to me that he was not quite straight). So, the doctor wrote the report for the left arm. The good news is that this also happened because she did not discern any major deformity on the right side!

Also, because of her mistake, she was quite eager to mail me over the film and email pics to Dr. Nath to be sure that we had what we needed. Now I have all his pics on CD and one XRAY film with several shots. So, their mistake turned out to be our benefit. I would not have gotten these otherwise. I had inquired about it at the hospital before I left and was told that the film would not be available for several days, and I would have to come back to the hospital to check it out, and I would have to return them in 72 hours. This major hassle was avoided.

Hope to see/meet some of you at the Plymouth Meeting meeting this Sunday.

Maggie