Highlights: MRI on June 10 came back with normal results! Praise God! This week has been difficult for Jack. He missed school for the MRI and came home early twice. He was unable to attend any taekwondo classes due to not feeling well.

The MRI is done and behind us! It is quite a relief. I wish it could have provided an answer and helped guide us in treatment, but a "non-answer" is great when the test offers terrifying possible diagnoses (like brain tumors).

Jack did an awesome job with the MRI. We arrived at CHKD a little early 10:15 am and were taken back quickly. Jack was relaxed and calm. The nurse put a numbing cream on his arm for the IV. Jack impressed the nurses with his positive attitude and intelligence by explaining first aid he learned from Cub Scouts. They started his IV about 11:15 am. They had trouble getting his blood samples at first and Jack was very tolerant of their prodding. At one point, he looked at his blood and suddenly got really pale and sick looking. He didn't complain, though, and no one noticed until I said something. He said he thought he was going to throw up. He improved, though, and they took him for his MRI at 11:50 am.

I waited in another room and chugged water. My migraines have also been really bad and I had taken a sumatriptan the night before and another one that morning. I usually only allow myself on sumatriptan a week, but I was in bad shape. I talked to another parent waiting on an MRI. His 13-month-old daughter was having seizures. He said she was having 30 seizures a day at one point, but she recently had a month with only five seizures. It was a big win for them. However, her MRI showed "bright spots" in the middle of the brain, which can indicate a rare, fatal disease. She was getting a second MRI to investigate further. Through tears, he said that he just hoped that they could find her the right treatment and when she was older, her parents would tell her that she wouldn't believe how difficult her first years of life were--and she'd have no memory of it. I tried to be as encouraging as possible and told him I'd be praying for him and his family. No matter how difficult it gets, I'm always reminded that other parents are going through nightmares of their own--worse ones.

Jack slowly awoke from his sedation around 1:00 pm. I tried to prepare myself to see him laying still and unresponsive in his hospital bed, but I knew that view would be bothersome. It is hard to see your child that way, like they're in a coma, and not see them respond to your voice. With time, Jack did fine waking up and ate goldfish and drank apple juice. After 15 minutes, he was allowed to go home. He had a mostly fine evening acting normal. And then he got reallyyy grumpy after dinner. We watched the first episode of Loki and got ready for bed. His head started hurting and he was nauseous. He said it hurt too much to sleep. The neurologist said he can only have Ibuprofen once or twice a week, so we reserve it for when it is absolutely needed. I cuddled with Jack to try to soothe him and in case he needed help getting to the bathroom. He fell asleep around 9:30 pm.

The next morning, Jack did not look well. He said his head still hurt and he was nauseous. I gave him Ibuprofen at 6:30 am and told him to just try to make it through school. It was the first Ibuprofen dose of the week. He was eager to go to school because Friday is art and it is the last art class of the schoolyear. They were doing something special. I could tell he felt bad, but I just hoped he'd make it since he had already missed two days this week. Well, I got a call at 10:00 am saying Jack was in the nurse's office, so I picked him up. Sigh.

On the way home, Jack asked if he could try a frap from Starbucks to see if the caffeine would help. We tried it once before with some success. Sure, man. Whatever you want! He drank about half of it and felt a lot better pretty quickly. The neurologist warned us to avoid caffeine, but I think he means more of on a daily basis to avoid caffeine addiction and a withdrawal headache. During a migraine attack, the flow of blood expands the vessels in the brain. Caffeine, like a triptan (migraine abortive medication), can constrict those blood vessels and stop the migraine attack in the process. The neurologist did not want to start Jack on triptans yet, so I suppose can try the caffeine as a smaller migraine abortive.

Jack's migraine did come back later and he struggled to go to bed due to his head and nausea (just like every night...). We will keep trying more treatments at home until we see the neurologist in July.