Rerun the Guinea Pig

As of Tuesday night, Rerun’s most recent contribution to science came to an end… until next year.

When Tad started doing ABA therapy at the University of Washington, I got Rerun into a research study program at the Autism Center that tracks children with older biological siblings who have been diagnosed with ASD.  At six months, Rerun went through an intensive “play” interview, I filled out questionnaires, and he had an MRI.

Fast forward to the last two weeks.  Rerun has just completed yet another set of appointments – two “play” interviews to test his motor skills, memory, attention span, and other developing skills, and on Tuesday night, he had a second MRI.

My job in all of this is to fill out packets of questionnaires, and get a baby to fall asleep and stay asleep for an MRI.  I’m proud to say that I have actually achieved this twice.

Rerun, once he is asleep, generally stays asleep.  Especially when he’s swaddled, has a full tummy, and has wax earplugs filling up his ears.  He has done so well at both MRI sessions that they’ve actually done extra scans on him.

Still, the whole process is very stressful – for me.  It’s the extra appointments, the paperwork, and then having the late-night MRI.  It’s just a whole lot to do.  But, this is my contribution to research and science.  And the fact that Rerun is getting paid a bit to participate doesn’t hurt, either.  It’s not a lot, considering the number of appointments we have at these milestone ages.  When Rerun goes to college, it might pay for half a textbook.

But we’re done and we don’t have to do this again until he’s two.  And right now, that seems very far away.  Let’s just pretend that it is, shall we?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at 2:11 am and is filed under Autism Adventures, Children.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.