Michigan, day two!

When we arrived at the MRI lab, they had a sign up for Jacob and they were all ready for us. The team was so great. They took great care of us and really let Jacob ask a lot of questions and play with some of the equipment










We were giving Jacob a break and he was playing his DS to distract him a bit.












This was Jacob with his PhD friend, Mrs. Jodine. She was goofy and fun and they hung out all day long.











We had to wait about 15 minutes for the MRI to become available, so she took us out to a pond area and let us walk around. We thought Jacob would fall in or something, but it actually calmed him. They say that being in nature can calm ADHD behavior and it was the first time we saw him relax.







This was Jacob taking in the sounds of the frogs













Prior to going into the MRI machine, Jacob and Jodine were queuing up the movie that he would be watching in the MRI. Of course, Jacob thinks he is a lap dog even though all 80 pounds of him sat on her lap. She loved it.









They had to fit him with special glasses because he couldn't take him own in because they were metal. It was hilarious because they looked so "nerdy".










Scarlet and Jessie were the ones who got Jacob all settled and then they let us watch from behind the glass. They were so good with him. He had hand controls so that when they spoke to him from behind the glass, he could answer yes or no by pushing buttons. He did great. Jessie ended up staying in the room with him and rubbed his feet and legs to let him know he was still there with him during the procedure.

I don't think Jacob realized that this contraption went around his whole head and they had to tape his head down so that they could get good pictures of his brain.

This was right after he was done. It took about an hour or so and he did great. They were really surprised that he stayed in there that long without asking to come out. If he had asked to come out, they would have let him and the study would have been over. But he did it. Rebecca and I got to watch all of the computer models of his brain as he watched television and it was interesting.

They allowed him to bring in his stuffed animal even though they had to scan it to make sure there wasn't any metal in it. It made him feel so much better.

So this was his team for the day. To the far left was Scarlet and she was the boss of the MRI, then Jessie, the grad student, then Jodine, the PhD. and then you know the rest. Right after the MRI at 4:30, we gave him medication so that we could make it through dinner and a movie that night. He wanted to go see Night at the Museum so that was part of his reward for being so good all day.

Well, thank goodness, Jacob slept until 8:00 when we had to wake him. He was his normal, un-medicated self when he first got up. By the time we got some food down him and left the hotel to meet Jessie, he was doing alright. He was chatty, but Lisa, the student who drove us from the airport the night before was there, so he was thrilled. The staff have been great with Jacob, especially him being un-medicated. Since they work with this all the time, they know how to engage with him and aren't shocked by much. We got to the research facility and Jessie and Lisa took him right away to start a lot of the testing which includes reading, listening, fine motor skills, watching a television interaction and talking about the feelings held by each child. They took a couple breaks because he was hungry, but he was also really tired. Even though we hadn't given him any medication, he looked half-baked. It was odd for us to see. We took him out for a walk and something to drink trying to wake him up a bit, but finally ended up giving him some Focalin medication that is short acting so they could get some more testing done. After that, they came out and said it was incredible. They said,"this child is a poster boy for giving kids medications for ADHD". They said he perked right up and you could see him brilliance shine through. What he couldn't answer before, he was able to jump right on and followed well. They then let him go into the moch scanner and showed him all of the buttons that he can push if he gets scared etc. They played with it and had a lot of fun so that it isn't a scary thing. We broke for lunch and then went to the MSU store where Jacob got a sweatshirt the says Michigan State University on it. He wanted a hooded sweatshirt, hot one with a zipper. We are back at the lab now and Jacob is doing about an hour more of testing. While Jacob has been testing, Rebecca and I have been answering a lot of questions and filling out behavioral questionnaires from when he was one year old to present. It is exhausting and hard to remember sometimes. They focused on the Aspergers and ADHD symptoms. When you hear some of the questions, without a doubt you know the answer. It can be a bit emotional to go re-live all of this information because there are a lot of emotional memories for us. We remember feeling like horrible parents who must be doing something wrong with him. It is hard to go back to those places.

Anyway, we will give an update with some pictures on the MRI status. We are really feeling well cared for by all of the staff here and are very blessed to have so many educated people around us. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, they don't go unnoticed. We got a lot of good feedback from the team and will continue to get more as the weeks go by. They sent us home with pictures of his brain and they will email us more. They did say that he does have ADHD pretty severely, which we had guessed. They also said he has a more rare case where his ADHD is severe also linked to Aspergers. You don't usually see that. It was good to hear what we had thought for all these years. When he was un-medicated, you only saw the ADHD symptoms, but as soon as he was medicated for ADHD, his Aspergers symptoms shined through. It was a good, fast, trip and we are so thankful for all of the thought and prayers from everyone.

Robb and Rebecca