Oh my little son, the survivor at all costs. You know, bless his determination to NEVER give in because it has kept him alive but he about did us in. I thought I knew stubborn before I parented Ammon. The things this child teaches us!
Tuesday night he was able to stay awake until about 3:30 am. I let him lightly sleep until about 5:30. I'd keep shaking him awake and he handled that better than I anticipated.
When we got to the Neuroscience Clinic at the University of Utah at 8:15 AM, he could hardly put one foot in front of the other. They took us into the MEG room and began to prep us for the test. Makayla went with me and we both had to change into scrubs so we wouldn't have any metal going into the MEG room to decalibrate the machine. He had to have over 30 electrodes embedded in a special swim cap like device glued onto his head. He was not impressed. By the time we finished, I was covered in the glue too but by golly, it was on his head! I have a small part of this on video and will try to download it here. I've never tried this before but watching it will give you a better feel for the fun we were having!
We went into the small MEG room and Ammon was having NONE of the laying on the bed scenerio. He wanted OUT. He has always become hysterical and highly panicked when in a little room with the door shut. That hasn't changed. He continually kept screaming as he squirmed, "Ammon bounce! Ammon bounce!" Makayla had taken him to a play center with bouncing toys the day before and we was wanting to bounce again. He continued to pull at his hat and electrodes.
After about 25 minutes of screaming he changed his strategy and used his very best manners and plead, "Peaz Ammon tome" (come, which in fact means to him "Please let Ammon go"). "Ammon off, off peaz" (let Ammon take his hat off please) This was the most heartbreaking part of all. Finally, Ammon cracked and crawled under the MEG gurney and sobbed himself to sleep.
Ammon had been given a sedative which they told me was about the same as slipping him a Mickey. It helped enough to allow us to move him up onto the gurney and slide his head into the multi-million dollar machine. It was then discovered that a ball he had taken in with him had metal inside it which demagnetized the machines. Thankfully, they were able to pull the gurney out of the machine without waking him up and recalibrate but that took up 20 precious sleeping minutes.
The test requires 50 minutes of data to be able to be usable. They really wanted at least 60 minutes. But at the 52 minute mark Ammon pulled himself out of the machine and loudly demanded, "Ammon bounce!!!" Thank goodness you all prayed those angels into the room who kept him asleep with two extra minutes even. We know that we saw at least one brain discharge recorded on the computer. We sure hope that there are more. His complete brain was recorded but at one time we could only see on the screen one of the 12 parts of the brain being simultaneously recorded.
It will take 3 MONTHS for the results to be known. Only one person can read the test and he is gone for the next month. Then it takes 2 months to build the 3D diagram of his brain using the data. Ammon will need to have another MRI but he wasn't in any way able to withstand that yesterday. We'll get to go through this fun again in a regular MRI.
Ammon still has a head full of glue after 3 shampooing but he is doing well. I was able to get a good night sleep so I'm doing better too! Thank you all so much for your help and your love. We could truly feel it!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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