The medical group wins. For now.

30 frustrating minutes at the MRI lab.

a happy meal.

5 hours in the car.

1 hour at the children's hospital to see the neurosurgeon.

$4 for parking.

Traffic, traffic, traffic.

I think that sums up mine and Robert's day today.

Dr. Krieger, Robert's neurosurgeon, had requested a full spinal MRI at the Children's hospital with sedation. After battling with the medical group again, we gave in and just did a partial spine at a local imaging center.  The MRI, in the words of Dr. Krieger, ".. was horrible. Crappy." But he was able to see that the syrinx is still there and hasn't changed substantially in size. If it has changed a little in size he couldn't tell due to the poor quality of the MRI. So, in a year Robert will have another MRI, and it WILL be a full spine with sedation at the children's hospital. We will now be filing official complaints and changing medical groups. If that means finding a new pediatrician, then I guess we will be saying goodbye to dear Doc Sharma, who we have been seeing for over 7 years now.

A humorous moment of the day.... Before the MRI we had given Robert a sedative, chloral hydrate, prescribed by the pediatrician. It did nothing for Robert. He tried his hardest to stay still, but he is a very active 4 year old. He moved without even knowing he was moving. After the MRI the tech said to me, "if they send you back you might want to think about getting him a sedative, like chloral hydrate, or something."  I just laughed.

In the end, we survived the day, Robert is doing GREAT, and all is well.