“What’s wrong sweetie?” I asked as she jerked her hand back and stood near the entrance.
“I don’t want to go in.”
“Why? They’re not going to hurt you. I promise.”
“You don’t know that. What if they poke me with a bunch of needles?” she cried.
“That’s not going to happen. They just need to take pictures of you.”
“I don’t believe you, mommy. Why do they want to take my picture? Can’t they see what I look like?”
“Of course they can, but these tests will let them see what you look like on the inside.”
“Why do they want to see what my insides look like?”
“Because they need to see your bones and joints.”
After explaining what bones and joints were, I finally talked her into going inside the building. Nevaeh anxiously waited in the lobby as she prepared for the worst. A tall, thin woman called me to the front desk shortly after I registered for the appointment.
“Miss Harris, how would you like to pay for the down payment this afternoon?”
“The down payment? What down payment?”
“We require a down payment at the time of service. After you make your initial down payment, we’ll bill you for the remaining amount. We ask that you put down at least two hundred dollars.”
“Two hundred?” I was lost in disbelief as I was put on the spot. I didn’t have two hundred to put down. I wasn’t sure I had one dollar, never mind two hundred of them. I lowered my voice so other patients couldn’t overhear me, “I’m sorry, no one told me. I don’t have two hundred to put down; I didn’t know a down payment was required. I can do half of it today, I guess,” I offered, seeing that money seemed more important than my daughter’s health.
“That will be okay. How would you like to pay that today?”
I rummaged through my purse and pulled out my credit card. “Can I use this?”
“Yes, that will be fine.”
The woman took my credit card and processed the payment. Great, there goes some of our grocery money for the month.
“Here you go Miss Harris,” she returned the credit card along with a receipt. “You’ll be called back shortly.”
I held Nevaeh’s hand until the technician called us back to the MRI room. She instructed Nevaeh to undress and put on the tiger printed hospital gown. While I helped her undress, I could sense her fear.
“Listen, baby, I know you’re nervous, but I promise, it’s not going to hurt. Do you see that table right there?” Nevaeh nodded her head. “You’re going to lay on that and they’ll press a button that moves the table inside of that circle machine. You’ll have to be really still while you’re in that part of the machine because that’s where they’ll take your pictures. Okay?”
Nevaeh looked at me as if I were crazy. “That thing’s not going to take my picture! I don’t even see a camera.”
“You can’t see the camera because it’s inside the machine,” I tried to reason with her.
The technician knocked on the door and asked to come in. Once she was back in the room, she helped Nevaeh onto the table and began the procedure. As her tiny body was pulled inside the scanner, she weakly smiled at me. Trying to put her at ease, I said, “It’s okay Nevaeh, I’m right here. I won’t leave you.”
Nevaeh laid completely still as the machine started pulling her inside of it. I can honestly say that I was scared for her. I thought the machine was intimidating, and I’m an adult! The scanner began making loud tapping noises, which scared Nevaeh, but she remained brave throughout the whole procedure. As the technician announced that the scan was complete, Nevaeh let out a sigh of relief. The motorized bed retracted out of the scanner, allowing Nevaeh to sit up.
“See. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I asked her.
“No, but it was scary because it was so loud. I wanted to jump, but I remembered that you said to be still.”
“You did an excellent job,” the radiographer added.
“What’s next?” I asked the woman.
“We’ll send these off to be analyzed, the results will be forwarded to your doctor and he’ll go over them with you. I noticed that Dr. Newton ordered these; he’s an excellent physician. The best in the field, actually.”
That made me feel better. “Okay, and what about her x-ray?” I asked.
“We’ll do that today as well, but I don’t do those. You’ll have to go down to x-ray.” She looked at Nevaeh, “You’ll need to stay in your cute gown for a while longer.”