We’re ready to go. Roman will have his PET scan today at Children’s Hospital in Detroit. The doctors running the drug trial want to see how serotonin is being synthesized in his brain before he goes on the Buspirone, which is scheduled for next Wednesday. Of course, we hope we’ll be getting the medication Wednesday instead of the placebo.
Roman has been told we’re going to the doctor’s. I wish I knew if he understood. I want to prepare him, but I don’t know how to do that. Tycen and Tanis, his brother and sister are just about out the door for school and Roman will freak out when they leave the house and he doesn’t. He does love school. That’s a good thing, except on days like today when it sets him off into a tantrum because he can’t go.
A PET (Positron Emission Technology) Scan involves a small amount of radioactive material being injected through an IV into Roman’s body. My Bubby is going to be radioactive. It makes me nervous. In the informed consent form I signed when we agreed to put Roman into the study, it likened the increased risk of cancer from a single PET scan to living in the air pollution of New York City for 100 days. I have to suppose that was meant to ease fears, but it hasn’t quite had the desired effect on me.
A PET scan works like an MRI, but the radioactive material glows where the doctors are looking at things, in this case, where the serotonin is being synthesized in his brain. I have no idea how to read a PET scan and I don’t think I’ll be able to tell anything from the scan today, but it’s a part of the study and we have to do it.
Roman has to lay still for the scan, so he will be sedated. I am not new to a child of mine being sedated. Tycen, my oldest, has been through several surgeries and yearly MRIs on a tumor in his foot. Still, it’s scary every time and today will be no different. I will have my aunt at the scan with me to help calm my nerves and so she can keep an eye on Roman on the way home as the drugs wear off.
I look at today as a necessary evil. If I want Roman to get the drug that could potentially help him so much, I have to let them go through with the PET scan. Wish us luck and send a good thought or two Roman’s way.
I will update throughout the day on twitter. Follow theautismmom to keep up with us.
Autism Awakening ~ Roman's Journey 