Sleep Study – Round Two & EEG Results

While I was gone, Dr. Corazza called with the results of Monday’s EEG!!  (So fast).  I’ll let Rolf explain it as my brain is mush…  He described the results as “surprisingly normal” considering the seizure activity we were able to show him on video.  In reviewing the MRI imagery taken at UCLA back in February 09, he saw evidence of an acute stroke in the left occipital region (which deals with vision), along with overall brain atrophy which could be indication of earlier insults (the term used to describe episodes of low oxygen levels in the brain).  We’re aware that HLHS kids have smaller brains (which was confirmed in the CT scans at the ER) and we’re not sure if this is another way of expressing the “atrophy” observation.  Add that to the list of follow up questions as we get our crash course in neurology.  For now we’ll continue the Keppra for seizures, but we may want to run some chromosomal and genetic panels for the team to investigate further.  Not like any of this is particularly “new” information as we had some conversations on this before Rudy left the ICU, but having to revisit it in such detail makes it feel like a new issue.

It’s been mentioned that Keppra can make people irritable and this may be an unfair week to assess this, but our little warrior hasn’t been at his happiest.  He’s been junky from cold and the battery of medical episodes of the last two weeks have him a bit out of sorts.  Safe to say that extends to our whole family–in your mind, you realize that HLHS includes unforeseen events popping up, but it is a bit disorienting to have suddenly returned to “medical deployment mode”.  Here’s hoping things settle down a bit now…save for the monthly lab draw that awaits Rudy in the morning :-(.