Once upon a time there was a 3 year old little girl with a lot of special medical needs. When that little girl grew up she ended up adopting her own little girl with some (different) medical needs. One thing the first little girl always remembered is that her mother was always honest with her and told her when and exactly what was going to happen. No lying or skirting the truth.
Today at lunch I took the same approach with Jude. I told her all about her MRI under anesthesia on Tuesday. Even with my nursing background the staff at Maine Medical Center has taken great pains to go over every detail with me this week. Tuesday morning we will be amongst the first in the hospital that I spent 6 months living in and have spent the 27 years since avoiding whenever I possibly can.
I cannot tell now how much Jude understands what I say, or how much of Tuesday she will remember; I just know I have vivid recollections of being her age and in scary medical situations and the only comforting thing for me was when things went just as my Mum said they would, even when it was painful at least I knew what was going on.
Now the trick seems to be how to calm myself down…
Bulgaria to Maine Adoption 
It’s always hard when our children have to have any medical procedures done, especially if anesthesia is involved. Between them, my little ones have been under anesthesia four times and once was for a brain and spine MRI. Every single time it’s heart-wrenching until we’re called into the recovery room and hold our babies again. All that said, everything will be fine.