Electroencephalography

Yep, I know some big words. :) Just popping in quickly today with a little prayer request. Today at 2:00 I will be bringing K in to the hospital where he was born for a routine EEG. This is a Scalp EEG which measures the summed activity of post-synaptic currents. Yeah, whatever that means. Basically a technician will be placing about 25 electrodes on K's scalp, forehead, and chest to measure brain waves and patterns. As I said, this is routine and no cause for alarm. He had his first EEG when he was less than a week old. The NICU nurses thought they saw him have what may have been a seizure. It was never confirmed. The first EEG, and all following EEG's showed great potential for seizures and highly abnormal brain activity. We have never actually seen him have a seizure. A couple of times I questioned weather he was having a petit mal seizure, but was never sure. Petit mal seizures are pretty much a 'staring spell' that some refer to as an absence seizure. It's like for a few minutes the person having the petit mal seizure is not really present with you. Even though we have never really seen K have any confirmed seizures, the high potential for seizures and abnormal brain patterns seen on his past EEG results have prompted doctors to put K on, and keep him on, medication that he must take each day. At first we had to go have these EEG's done a couple of times a year. It was very exciting when we were able to just have them done annually. The results have yet to come back normal. Here are my requests: First of all K has to be awake for part of the test and asleep for part. Ha ha! That's kind of a big joke. He gets so nervous during these kinds of tests (and no one can blame him!) that it doesn't matter how tired he is - he will do every thing in his power to stay awake. And he is just that stubborn. I let him stay up a little bit later than normal last night and I got him up at 5 this morning. He's been going strong ever since. So, it would be awesome if he would be able to cooperate and go to sleep for part of this test! I don't think he ever has in the past, and they have still been able to get some what accurate readings. Still, I know they really prefer him to sleep for at least a small portion of it. Fortunately I will be able to lay down on the bed with him. I will bring his special quilt and soft pillow that he sleeps with each night. I'm really hoping that this time he will feel more comfortable. It does help that he is getting older and able to understand more. You know, I can just look him in the eye and say, "Honey, the nice man is just going to measure the summed activity of your post-synaptic currents. It won't hurt and it will all be okay." I'm sure that will help! Also, it would be wonderful if this would be our first EEG that would no longer show the seizure potential and we could finally get him of the medicine he has been on for 6 years! I'll let you all know how it goes!