neuro and EEG

Yesterday, Eve had her neurology appointment and an EEG. It was a tough day. For the EEG, Eve needed to be sleep deprived, so they had us keep her up until 11pm the night before and get her up at 5am yesterday. We also had to keep her awake for the 1.5 hour earthquake. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't bad.

She had her appointment with the neuro first. It went well. It basically was a check-up to document what skills she still has and which skills she has lost. There were two medical students in the appointment with the doctor. I love when that happens, because you get so much more information as the doctor explains what he's seeing to the students. For example, I might not have noticed that when he tested the reflexes on one foot, they jumped across her body and her other foot twitched as well. I mentioned that I thought it was great for these students to get exposure to mito and the doctor said that's why he invited them in. I suppose if your kid has to be ill, at least there's an opportunity to educate future healers. Anyhow, the dr. is going to adjust her mito cocktail, wants to follow-up in 6 months, and is referring us to a cardiologist for a checkup in June. This is something the mito doc recommended just to be sure that all is well. Since other body systems can be affected by mito, it's always good to keep an eye on them.

As for the EEG, oh boy. They gave her a sedative to help her stay asleep and not care that they were putting sticky electrodes on her head. BUT....she didn't fall asleep!!!! I think she was so concerned about the medical setting, and they wanted her on her back (which she never sleeps on - she keeps startling herself awake - as if she thinks she's falling). So, we finally flipped her on her stomach and the poor tech had to work around with a different position. Eve finally fell asleep and stayed asleep for the test. They monitored her brain waves for about 10 minutes and then woke her up and flashed lights in her eyes. I think the goal was to induce seizure activity. The doctor will call with the results today. Jim and I are expecting that no seizure activity was observed, and that we will just keep an eye out for any future episodes. Eve fell asleep in the car and slept the whole way home. I put her in bed when we got home and let her sleep until 4pm. Then up for 3 hours and back to bed at 7pm. She slept like a rock until 7am.

So, as I sit with my coffee (which I rarely drink in the morning), we are all recovering from sleep deprivation.