Thursday, January 08, 2009

Update to Chelsea's dr's appointments

I wanted to let you guys know how the dr's appt went yesterday.

Chelsea saw the neurologiest yesterday morning. She was told "by definition" she has epilepsy. "by definition" means if you've had 2 seizures in your life. She is going back to the dr. on Friday morning to do the brain test. They will hook a bunch of pads to her head and then try and make her have a seizure to see if they can catch it on the scanner. The last time she did this, they couldn't force the seizure.

The other thing is, the dr. said her thyroid is enlarged so she is having an ultrasound on Monday to get that checked and then a follow up on the 19th. The dr is going to put her back on medication (not Keppra) and hopefully it doesn't react the same way that the Keppra did. I don't think my boss will want me taking another 2 or 3 weeks off of work.

I really hope that the seizures were caused by her thyroid. I think it would be easier to take thyroid meds for the rest of my life versus epilepsy meds.

The dr also told her that it is against state law for her to drive right now. Which she hasn't since December 2nd. She will have to be seizure free for 6 months to be able to drive again. The state hasn't revoked her license, but if she were to drive and had a seizure behind the wheel and wrecked her car or someone elses, we would all be in big bad trouble.

Deep down in my gut, I really think it has something to do with the time of the year, and studying for math finals. During the 3 years that she didn't have a seizure, she wasn't in any math classes. The neurologist said it doesn't have anything to do with math, but could be stress due to studying for math. But, the dr's and scientist don't even know what causes epilepsy, so how could she say for sure that it doesn't have anything to do with math.

I know there are people who live a normal life with epilepsy, they drive, take care of their families and hold down jobs just fine. But they aren't my child.

It's so hard not having a confirmed diagnosis one way or the other.

2 comments:

lunaticraft said...

I'm so sorry they can't pin down a diagnosis yet... sometimes simply knowing what's wrong is half the battle. My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family!

Unknown said...

I second lunaticraft. I hope you get an answer soon!