Good news this morning, although somewhat complicated. The neurologist on rounds, Dr. Carlson, said he saw five sub-clinical seizures on Josh's EEG in the past 24 hours, all of which originated in the right, frontal region. A sub-clinical seizure is one which shows up as abnormal discharges on the EEG, but does not manifest in clinical seizure symptoms. So the best case scenario would be if Josh has typical seizures and the EEG pattern -- right frontal -- correlates with the EEG pattern from the sub-clinical seizures.
The slurring speech/numbness issue is still somewhat of a mystery. The docs think it could be irritation/swelling from the electrodes. It is probably not Todd's Paralysis because it wasn't preceded by a full blown seizure.
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If it all matches, could they do surgery right away or would they still need to wait til August?
ReplyDeleteSo these were real, spike wave seizures or just "focal slowing"?
ReplyDeleteHow's the weather down there? I've often thought that hospital rooms should have balconies, so patients can go out and get fresh air on nice days.
They will not do phase 2 right away -- too much for the body to handle.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what "focal slowing" is.
Focal slowing is a localized area of abnormal brain waves (slow waves), but they are not epileptiform. We had several abnormal EEGs after Morgan's first seizure that showed these abnormal waves in the area where her seizures were eventually (5 years later) determined to come from.
ReplyDeleteso there will not be surgery on thursday? I will be at NYU since I have a doc appt and his office is in the hospital. I am not sure if I will bring Melanie or not but would love to see you guys and say Hello to Josh if he is up for it. Not sure what time appt will be but maybe 9 or maybe 12:30ish. Does one time work better?
ReplyDeleteDebbie (cousin Rich's wife)
hi guys..
ReplyDeletejust want to let you know we are thinking of you.. and check in on the blog all the time .. it is so helpful to get the updates so that we know what is going on.. can Josh at least get up and walk around??? are you guys getting some rest? where are you staying? OK.. love and peace.. Lollie & family
Good morning everyone,
ReplyDeleteI'll try to answer all of the questions here, because this is the only spot I can comment on for this thread. It's so good to hear from all of you!
Kelly, the seizures that he had the other night - the 5 sub-clinical seizures - were real spike & wave seizures, not focal slowing. The doctors want him to have a few of his "regular" seizures so that they can see if these present themselves in the same place.
Debbie,
We don't know as of yet if Josh will be going into the OR on Thursday to have the wires removed, etc. If he does, he won't be up for visitors that day. It's actually considered a second surgery. He will stay in the ICU the night after the surgery, and then be moved to a regular hospital room. We would love to see you, so feel free to call or email and we'll work something out. (My cell phone # is 518-265-2319) Love to all, Robyn
Lollie,
One of the hardest things about this hospital stay is that Josh cannot get out of bed at all. He can't even walk to the bathroom, which is abut 50 feet away from his bed! He's incredibly bored, but also tired and a bit crabby, so he doesn't really feel like doing anything. We are trying to coax him into playing games, etc. but it's difficult.
Jerry and I are so fortunate to have an apartment right next store to the hospital. It's literally 2 minutes away! After the first night in the ICU, we have been sleeping in the apartment. We know that if Josh needs us, we could be back here in minutes, and Josh really does need a break from us! We definitely are not his favorite people to be around lately ;-).
Thanks so much for all of your thoughts, and questions, and care. You're the best! We love you all.
~Robyn