Great Profiles

At first glance, observing the Larsons is like watching any other family. With an enthused mom, energetic dad, adorable daughter, two affectionate dogs, and a nice house, they seem to live every family’s dream of a normal American life. Watch the Larsons for a little bit longer and you’ll see how things aren’t quite as normal. It began nearly six years ago with the birth of their daughter Mikaslyn.

“We really didn’t think there was anything wrong until she was about three months,” says Mikaslyn’s mother, Kristine. “It was almost like she didn’t have a backbone.” In fact, by the time Mikaslyn reached three months she still couldn’t hold herself up or push herself up on her arms. Rick and Kristine took Mikaslyn to her doctor in Missoula to find out what was wrong. They didn’t know it was going to be the first of many appointments and doctor visits for her.

The doctors initially told Rick and Kristine to “wait it out,” because Mikaslyn had made what they called “the three-month benchmark.” But what they were supposed to wait for, Rick and Kristine couldn’t quite figure out. “We did an MRI at 8 or 9 months and it showed brain damage, so that’s when we went to see a neurologist,” said Kristine. The neurologist asked the Larsons if they had seen any sign of seizures in Mikaslyn. They replied no. “We thought they were just baby startles,” Kristine explained. “We didn’t know they were seizures.”

At the pediatrician’s urging, Mikaslyn started physical therapy at 9 months. But to the Larsons, it was more a nightmare than anything else. They thought the therapists pushed her too hard and made her cry too much. It was like watching someone torture their child.

At that point, the Larsons knew that they had to do something different. So they decided to see a new neurologist in Helena. Another set of tests revealed that the baby startles were actually seizures. Medicine helped but didn’t get rid of the seizures entirely. Then, when Mikaslyn was 18 months, she got pneumonia and strep throat and had to be life-flighted to Seattle. The trip to Seattle allowed Rick and Kristine to finally find a capable neurologist. “He found out that she had hypsarrhythmia and I really credit him for saving her life. Because if you don’t treat it, it can kill you” said Kristine.

Hypsarrhythmia is a condition in which an individual experiences 24-hour brain seizures due to a brain-wave problem that occurs before going to sleep or upon waking. It is more common in adults than in children; sometimes an individual can even grow out of it. Five medications are used to treat her condition. Steroid shots have kept Mikaslyn has been seizure free since 2004.

Now five years old, Mikaslyn’s condition has required Rick and Kristine to radically adapt their living situation and lives. Mikaslyn doesn’t speak, though it becomes apparent through the vocalizations and noises she makes that she has a lot to say. Kristine put together a “choice book.” Every page has laminated photos, about 2 inches square, of her toys and games as well as a picture of her plate and of a cup. If Mikaslyn becomes fussy or obviously bothered, Rick or Kristine can stick a few photos on a page with Velcro and ask her to make a choice. More times than not, she reaches out and makes known what it is that she wants.

Mikaslyn also cannot walk or even stand up on her own. This means that she must either be assisted in walking (someone must hold her at both hip joints while helping her along) or she must be carried. Because Kristine is pregnant with their second child, due mid December, and can’t carry Mikaslyn from room to room, Rick (who works from his office at home) is able to assist. Mikaslyn also has her own personal aide who spends a total of nine hours a week with her, spread out over 3 days. Called a habilitation aide, employed by the Child Development Center at Fort Missoula, she picks Mikaslyn up from school and brings her home to work on specific physical goals with her. But Rick and Kristine also spend long hours teaching Mikaslyn how to be mobile, feed herself, and make her own choices.

If anything becomes clear while talking with her parents, it’s that the last thing they will do is give up on Mikaslyn and concede that where she is in her development today is enough and probably permanent. Rick recounted something a relative once said when talking about one of his own children: “It doesn’t matter how long it takes ‘em,” he said, “it just matters that they make it. There’s no timetable.” “Of course Mikaslyn is behind,” he said, “but it’s more important that she makes it than when she makes it.”

To make sure that Mikaslyn makes it, the Larsons have transformed their home to make it as navigable for her as possible. For starters, replaced carpet with wood and linoleum, leaving a square of carpet in the living room where Mikaslyn can play on the floor. They laid the flooring in such a way that allows Mikaslyn to walk into any room of the house while in her walker. Along the walls of the hallway of their home, they mounted toys of a wide variety at the height of her arms when she’s in her walker. The Larsons did this because it enables Mikaslyn to be independent and make choices about where she wants to play and what she wants to play with. Mikaslyn’s room is also full of artwork that attracts her attention and stimulates her brain. One of her favorites is a unique piece of shiny, shaped copper in the shape of a sphere that hangs from the ceiling. Mikaslyn often walks right up to it in her walker and spins it, watch while the light reflects.

Additionally, Mikaslyn’s parents have enlisted the help of other services besides the Child Development Center. She routinely receives physical, occupational, and speech and cranial-sacral therapy. All of these services come at quite a price for the Larsons. Though Mikaslyn is making progress it is very gradual, so the Larsons needed to get creative and to think about long-term financial options. Rick, who is a web designer by profession, came up with TheGrubClub.com. It’s a website that allows restaurants to post their menus online and do all the editing and descriptions at their own convenience with no cost. “There’re all these websites about restaurants, but they’re all reviews,” explained Rick, “As a user I want to know what the menu is and what it costs, because you can get a really good feel for a restaurant by looking at the menu.”

When talking about his work, Rick’s eyes light up and he his personality starts to appear. It’s immediately clear that Rick doesn’t involve himself in anything he isn’t passionate about and willing to be engaged in. Fifty years old, he looks much younger than his age. With short brown hair, he’s fit and he attributes this jokingly to the amount of times he has to go up and down the stairs everyday. His office, where he spends most of his day, is in the basement of their home. But Mikaslyn and Kristine spend their time on the main level, which requires Rick to frequent the upstairs several times a day.

So how does Rick make money off Grub Club if it’s a free service for the restaurants? At this point, he doesn’t. “Knowing that restaurants are all broke and seeing whatever incredible amount of money Google is making in advertising I thought that’s how I would model it,” he said. “Advertising is where we would make our money.” At this point the Grub Club has a lot of traffic but not enough in any specific area to advertise. At present, his website gets around 15,000 visitors a month, but to attract the advertising of companies like Chevy, Rick said, you need to attract around 500,000 visitors per month. Because Rick is a web developer as a day job, “the Grub Club comes out of sleep time,” he said laughing. “I do stuff through the day if I can but mostly I do it after everybody goes to bed.”

Rick has a very specific approach to his business that he believes will ultimately lead to the Grub Club’s success. “I figure that a business will succeed if it helps a lot of people–like, it’ll come back to you,” he explained, “If enough people succeed, you’re gonna succeed.” Rick thinks that if he approaches the world like it’s filled with more good people, he’ll end up interacting with good people which will certainly help the Grub Club take off. “We have enough things to worry about with Mikaslyn that are unknown and scary. I try not to focus on them and instead focus on the successes we’ve been able to achieve,” he said.

Kristine has also made sacrifices as a mom, a bookkeeper and a wife. She oversees the financial books for two of Rick’s businesses as well as three in Missoula and Helena. She quit her 15-year career as paralegal two years ago to stay home with Mikaslyn. “I never thought I would do that but I did,” she said, adding that overall she likes the switch because “you work whenever you want, do your own hours, get your work done when you can.”

Growing up with a special needs brother gave Kristine a distinctive perspective on what Mikaslyn’s life may hold. “I just compare my childhood with a special needs brother to what her childhood will be,” said Kristine. She learned a lot of important lessons. “You learn more about people, and how accepting or unaccepting they are towards people who are different,” she recalled. When it comes to reactions towards Mikaslyn, “sometimes people stare at her but sometimes they’re like “awww she’s so cute!” said Kristine.

Raised in a Christian family, Kristine was taught to be nice, kind, charitable, and to give to others. “My mom was always so loving and giving and charitable to everyone; she tried hard to live how she talked.” Kristine tries to use her mom’s outlook. But she admits, “sometimes it’s hard to be so positive. I don’t know what’s in store for her but I really believe that everything happens for a reason. So that’s one of the things I try to think about,” she said. “Why was Mikaslyn born with a disability?” Now Kristine’s long face outlined by chin-length brown hair suddenly becomes animated and her eyes narrow. Though she clearly accepts Mikaslyn’s condition, she still searches for the purpose behind it.

Kristine says she learned some things since Mikaslyn’s birth. For one, she’s had to learn how to be patient. “I’m a go-go-go kind of girl,” she said, “and I’ve had to learn to slow down.” Along with that, she’s had to become more tolerant and accepting of Mikaslyn not doing things as fast as she would do them. She has to be on Mikaslyn’s schedule, not her own. “I’m a very spontaneous person. I like to get up and go but I can’t do that anymore,” she said. “Now we have to plan and organize everything like what equipment are we going to take, where she is going to sleep, all that sort of thing.”

Rick knows he wouldn’t have learned if it weren’t for Mikaslyn. For example, he knows that he has been able to do a lot of things he didn’t think were possible, while in situations he couldn’t have imagined. “You have to get up and move forward,” he said, “I know not everybody manages to but I found that I could do a lot more than I thought I was capable of.” One lesson he holds above all the others: unconditional love. Here Rick becomes both very serious and very enthused. “I never really understood what that meant. You hear it in theory, people talk about it, but it wasn’t until she was born that I understood what that was like. I don’t see any other arena in adult life where that exists. I do see examples in people that seem to have been able to do that, but they’re people like Mother Teresa or Gandhi. So I never really completely understood it until she was born and then her issues made it even greater-that feeling of wanting to help her made it even more compelling.”

It’s dinner time, and Kristine sets up Mikaslyn’s plate and chair set while Rick runs up the stairs, the dogs trailing behind. Most of the time, they take turns helping Mikaslyn eat. But today that job is left up to Rick. Lately Mikaslyn, who “usually will eat absolutely everything,” according to Kristine, has been challenging her parents to come up with clever ways to get her to eat. From the airplane game to switching foods to letting her play with some of her favorite toys while eating, they’ve tried them all. Tonight Rick and Kristine laugh through unsuccessful attempts. Eventually the toy with music playing, multi-colored animals wins and Mikaslyn eats enthusiastically. Perhaps they are just as normal as other families after all.