Another Tucker MRI

Tucker had an MRI done on Friday for his hips & knees. You all know that from the beginning he has had problems and pains in his legs. The pain ranged from not being able to walk & had a wheelchair, to manageable & can run around for a short period of time before needing to rest. Nobody knows why, its been very frustrating.

The scan on his hip was from the waist down to about the middle of his thigh, and the knee scan was from the knee up to the middle of his leg. So his whole upper leg from the knee caps up to his waist got the MRI. I’m so relieved. We really need answers to his leg problems that have not seem to go away. His walk is different; he has a different gate, very labored and “limping”. So now that we are about 6 weeks out from our last ARC (horrible painful chemo-that they originally thought had caused the leg pain).. and his pain hasn’t gone away, they wanted to get a MRI done and see what’s going on.

Tucker did great! The MRI took about 50 minutes and he didn’t need to be sedated this time. You’ll see if you look really close in the pictures that they put big headphones on him and then some crazy outer space looking goggles, can you believe that through those goggles he got to watch a movie of his choice, which was Shark Tales- always a good choice. Its crazy how far in technology we have come, Tucker got to kick back with crazy goggles and relax.

Dr. Afify said that there is one thing we could possibly be dealing with that would explain a lot…. its a side effect from the steroids called AVN… or : Avascular Necrosis (Osteonecrosis).

WOW, big words there… so here is the WEBMD definition.. Avascular necrosis (AVN), also called osteonecrosis, aseptic necrosis, or ischemic bone necrosis, is a condition that occurs when there is loss of blood to the bone. Because bone is living tissue that requires blood, an interruption to the blood supply causes bone to die. If not stopped, this process eventually causes the bone to collapse. Avascular necrosis most commonly occurs in the upper leg. Other common sites are the upper arm, knees, shoulder, and ankles.

Its goes more in depth than that- but that’s not really important- its not for sure that’s what we are dealing with, its just a possibility. We will find out the results of his MRI on Tuesday. Justin and I are both going to go to this appointment. Dr. Afify said that she had news for us on this Tuesday’s appointment. She has been working hard on the big concern of if we should give Tucker ARC chemo again or not…. She has been doing so much research and contacting other doctors across the country to get help & opinions on Tucker’s case. I’m excited to hear what she has to say & what she found out….. and I’m really nervous about the MRI results. I’m so glad we got the MRI done, Tucker has looked at me more than once since this whole thing started and said “Mom, can’t I just get a whole body scan done so they can find out what’s wrong with me?” Well, now that we got the legs scanned, his whole body has been “scanned”…. Well except for his feet… and we don’t need to scan those to find out they are big & stinky.

Wish us luck on Tuesday, love Amber, Justin & stinky feet Tucker