Today was a big day. We had to be at Children’s Hospital at 7:30 a.m.  Since our boys usually sleep in past then, I decided to put them to bed in their clothes for today instead of pajamas so we could get out the door on time. My idea didn’t work out according to plan. Jude had a bloody nose in the middle of the night and used his shirt sleeve as his Kleenex until I jumped out of bed to answer his screams. And Asher wet through his clothes in the middle of the night and needed a new outfit when he awoke. At least little Levi cooperated and then only needed his hair brushed, teeth brushed and diaper changed before our family raced out the door.
Jude’s functional MRI was at 9:30 a.m. at Abbott. I got the anesthessiologist to agree to try the IV in Jude’s foot since it’s further away from his eyes. Overall, the IV location worked out better than the hand, I believe. Jude had to be awake during the functional MRI and we got to send in a parent. We picked Andy since Jude tends to obey Andy more than me (I’m a softey). Jude was given some drug that made him more relaxed than he otherwise would have been and that has some sort of amnesia-effect. Jude was a trooper and really cooperated well during the functional MRI even though it was so loud in there and he was paranoid that people were poking more needles in his foot. The problem was that while Jude was reading or moving his hands as requested, he kept moving his head. He just couldn’t keep his head perfectly still for the required 3-5 minutes for each individual test. In the end, the functional MRI was not successful and I do not believe they got any useful information from it. Really big bummer. I’m proud of Jude for rising to the occasion and trying so hard and being so brave, but, in the end, it just didn’t work out. Too bad they didn’t have some way to restrain his head. As my mom said, “He didn’t fail. They failed him.” Kind of true.
After the functional MRI, they put him to sleep and did a normal MRI. I think the reason for another normal MRI (since he just had one 5 days ago) was because Abbott has a better MRI machine than Children’s and the neurogurgeon wanted better pictures. They had Andy squeeze Jude’s hand during a part of it and were able to locate which part of Jude’s brain controls sensory function. Apparently it is normal that motor function is controlled in a location by sensory function. So, they think they at least know which parts of his brain control sensory and motor function.
After Jude woke up from anesthesia, he ate an orange popsicle, some graham crackers and some strawberry Jell-O and watched Cars on the TV. We then went to Target and bought his a new XBox game and some Legos as a reward for trying so hard on his scan today.