We've made the first leg of our journey home. We are in Temple tonight picking up our precious boy. I think he missed us almost as much as we missed him, although that's pretty hard to believe. Tonight he wanted to head HOME. He misses his kittens mainly, I think. ;-)
We were released from the hospital around 11 a.m. We were able to visit with the doctor this morning for about 45 minutes and get a VERY preliminary report. He wanted to let us know the next phase he feels they'll call for so we can start making educated decisions about all this. The next phase, he feels at this point, before all the information is really back, is brain mapping. He's thinking that we need to know for sure if the surgery will affect Larry in key ways. Unfortunately, Larry is NOT a candidate for the straight-forward, most common type of epilepsy surgery, the temporal lobectemy. He thinks Larry's epilepsy is in the left occipital lobe or in the back of the temporal lobe. So...we wait two weeks to find out what all the tests tell us. They have to read the SPECT scan and tally the stuff on the neuropsychology exams. It will be very interesting to find out how that all turns out.
We found out a bit more about the neuropsychology tests he took. Part of it is an IQ test. We'll finally know how smart Larry really is. ;-) Another section of the tests were testing his memory, speech, word comprehension, math skills, etc. They will then take Larry's tests and compare IQ scores to a "normal" set of scores and see where he is deficit in memory, speech, etc. We'll then know if it's okay to take out those sections of his brain...because they aren't working anyway. So...if the SPECT test says the seizures are happening in a specific area and that part controls the area he's deficit in, he's more easily cleared for surgery of that area. Make sense?
Larry is pretty tired tonight, and is complaining of his legs hurting. I'm just hoping he doesn't have a blood clot after all his complaining about the foot pumps he was "supposed" to wear at night. I'm so impressed with Larry and how he was such a trooper through it all. He told me today that it wasn't near as bad as he was expecting. We feel good about what we've done.
So...the next possible step is brain mapping. I can't remember the exact name, but will post information about it as I find it. Basically it's where they open the skull and then place a "sheet" of electrodes on his brain. They then close his skull back up and leave the wires poking out of the top of his head. He'll then go through pretty extensive testing (doc said two days of six hour exams) to see what controls what, etc. He'll have the electrodes in his head for 7 days, then they'll remove them. Of course, we'll be admitted into Parkland again into the Epilepsy Center. Of course, they'll hope for some seizures to put on the EEG, too. As he was tethered to the wall for five days this week, the only difference in the brain mapping is that they open up his head and put the electrodes IN the head.
One other good thing happened this morning. Larry had a seizure in front of the doctors! It was AWESOME. Of course, he didn't have the EEG on anymore (they took that off yesterday), but the doctor told him at the very beginning of the seizure, "Remember the word "cow"". Larry was able to answer a few questions and follow a few instructions once the seizure ended, but couldn't remember that the doctor told him to remember the word cow. I said something like, "He couldn't hear you when told him to remember that." The doctor replied, "Oh, he could hear me." So...this is all making more sense to me. Larry can hear (and admitted that later), but he can't understand what people are saying. So his comprehension goes to nill when he has a seizure. Very interesting, eh? I thought it was! All this time I thought he actually couldn't HEAR me.
Well, tomorrow we head HOME. We all can't wait. We are stopping in Midland to help Shari, Larry's sister, celebrate her birthday. We will really enjoy spending time with Larry's family and answering questions. I know his dad will have a TON of questions, so I hope I'm ready! I can always pull out the blog for remembering if I get stuck, right? LOL We are anxious to hear the results of the tests, and I'll post here as soon as I do! They told me to call the nurse in two weeks. Oh! They also increased Larry's Lamictal level. We are really giving it a shot to work! Let's pray for that!!
And one last thing...we weren't released yesterday because Larry had a toxicity to the Tegretol/Carbatrol he was given. He was SO dizzy most of yesterday and still a bit this morning. He's doing better now, though. They moved one of his doses so that it's with the 2nd dose, so he only takes his meds (Carbatrol and Lamictal) twice a day. IF he can handle the high dose at night! We'll see!
Thanks for your prayers! We are traveling 9 hours tomorrow, so please continue to remember us.
