BTW....You can really tell you are in the states when you see signs stating guns are not allowed in the building! That catches me by surprise every time! :)
Leah's neurology appointment was 2 hours long! He had reviewed her entire chart the night previous and was well prepared to speak with us. He took a very in depth history, asked lots and lots of questions and then examined her. He even sat back and very patiently listened when Leah was telling me the ENTIRE plot line of the chapter book she had been reading!
He began to develop a diagnosis and then called a colleague and had a telephone consultation with her. They both agreed that what she exhibits is Negative Cortical Myoclonus - which basically means a seizure disorder that presents itself as a sudden unexpected relaxation of the muscles; as opposed to a sudden contraction of the muscles as is stereotypical of a seizure. Cortical meaning it takes place in the cortex.
The area that the seizures would be occurring is deep inside the two sides of the cortex which is notoriously very difficult for eegs to pick up readings on. If my understanding is correct for Leah it would be effecting the purple, red and yellowish areas.
The good news is the MRI showed no further white matter changes, the one area she had remained the same and there is no evidence of changes in the areas the seizures are occurring.
She has been prescribed the anti-seizure medication Keppra, we will trial it for 1 month and see if she improves. The neurologist has requested we keep in telephone contact with him so he can follow her progress. He will be sending his recommendations on to her doctors at home as well. As a precaution he has ordered a set of bloodwork to rule out an autoimmune issue causing the seizures but he is quite certain that it will come back as negative.
Is it great news? Epilepsy? Not great, but totally able to deal with it. She would need to be on medication for the rest of her life, have frequent blood work to check the levels of medication in her system and make changes to it as she grows, hits puberty etc. It will impact her for ever, and she will have a hard time making people understand because it is the opposite of what people expect. But keeping things in perspective, when we are in the children's clinic and see the spectrum of disorders and diseases the other kids are coming in with, I am grateful that epilepsy is all we have to worry about.
So now we are heading back to Pannekoeken for brunch!
Leah wants us to split one stuffed with bacon and one stuffed with chocolate chips. Not sure if my system can handle that in one day, but I feel like celebrating so I will pack some Tums and let her go crazy! :)
After that, we head over to the overseeing Dr. for our follow up appointment. There we will get her opinion on the blood work that was done and find out if we also have to face a lifetime of synthetic thyroid medication. Again, in the grand scheme of things, more bothersome than anything and completely manageable., We will also find out if we have to stay longer or try and make arrangements to come home early.
Update to come later one!
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