Friday, February 26, 2010

My poor baby

Yesterday Gage had to go to Mission Childrens Hospital for his EEG. I knew it would be hard on him. He has quite a temper sometimes!

I got a message on Tuesday from Dr, O'Donnell's nurse saying his appointment was set for Thursday at 1:00. She said to put him to bed 2 hours early the night before and get him up 2 hours early so he would be tired. She said it was a sleep study.

On Wednesday, I called the Dr.s office to see if there was anything else I was supposed to do before I took him. The nurse I talked to that day said to take his blanket and teddy bear, and to take some books because we would be there awhile. She said though, to put him 2 hours later than normal and to get him up 2 hours early. She said he needed sleep deprivation for the sleep test. I was a little mad. I hadn't let Gage take a nap all day because I thought he'd have to go to bed around 6 that evening. Now he was tired and still needed to stay up till around 10pm.

He made it to 9 and I went ahead and put him in bed. We got up at 6 the next morning. I had to try to keep him up the entire morning. I was worried that he'd go to sleep in the car on the way there.

We finally made it there (he only tried to go to sleep in the car once and I managed to wake him up as soon as he nodded off) armed with a big sack full of toys, books, his big Mickey Mouse blanket, 2 sippy cups, some cheerios, and his teddy bear. We were prepared to stay all day.  We checked in, and played in the waiting room for awhile. When he got called in, the women that does the EEGs (the EEG technician?) was very nice and put a movie in for him while she put the thingies all over his head (what are those called? Sensors?) I told Gage: alright this is what you've been waiting for, you're so tired. Thinking was going to get to go to sleep. The woman just kinda gave me a funny look but didn't say anything. A few minutes later, she explained what she was going to do, and said it'll only take about 25 minutes to do the test, he can watch TV while we do it.

I was like what? They told me it was a sleep study, that he'd have to go to sleep for the test. I've kept him up for 2 days. She said no, it's not a sleep study. (I could've killed a couple nurses) She did say the sleep deprivation was good for the test though.


Anyway, she started putting the wires all over his head. I knew this wasn't going to be fun. He screamed the other day when a nurse put the thermometer in his ear. Poor little guy cried and cried. I had to hold his hands down. He was saying MamaMamaMama over and over again. I was almost in tears. She finally got them all in. I think it took longer to put those in than it did to actually run the test. She wrapped his head in bandages so he couldn't pull them out. After that was done, he calmed down and watched Blues Clues the rest of the time. I wasn't sure how she would feel if I took pictures of him while we were there but she left for a minute to go get him some prizes for being good so I snapped a couple while she was gone.


 

 



My poor baby looked so pitiful. I did get to hold him the whole time but I couldn't really cuddle him because I was afraid of messing the wires up. 

She finished and made me hold him over the sink to wash all the goop out of his hair. He screamed at that too. He hates getting his head wet. And then she said 'you can go now'. That was it. No answers. Nothing. I said well, I guess the Dr. will call huh? and she said 'Yeah, you should be getting a call in about a week'. 

Really now? It's gonna take a whole week to look at the results. I mean REALLY? 

So, I still don't know anything. It's probably nothing but I don't want to wait a full week to find out whether or not my child is having seizures.

He is acting fine now. He does have a cold but nothing else unusual has happened. But the Dr. said, you wont know if he's going to have another on until it happens. So I guess I'm forced to wait. I hate waiting. 



2 comments:

Linda Stewart said...

I remember my daughters first EEG. It was HORRIBLE. He's was sleep deprived. She woke up from her nap the day before the study and wasn't allowed to go back to sleep at all until time for the study. Her nap was over about 3pm and her study wasn't scheduled until like 10am the next morning. We colored, painted T-shirts, make cookies, played in the bathtub, played in the shower. You name it, we did it. It was the longest night of my life. It made it even worse that I could hear her dad snoring in the bedroom and he didn't have a clue what was going on with me and her. He never offered to take a shift so I could get some rest too.
We had a 90 minute drive with her locked in her car seat to the office for her study. It took about 30 minutes to hook her up and they let me hold her in a recliner. She went right to sleep. Actually we both feel fast asleep. I was just at the point of deep sleep when they woke me up and told me we were finished. They had already removed all of the wires and bands from her and had gotten me a towel and some special soap to wash her hair. She slept through it all, through an early lunch, the ride home, and most of the afternoon. Needless to say she slept most of the day. About the time I started to bed she was awake for the night.
Waiting for the results was sheer torture. Calling on the day I was told I could call for results and having a nurse tell me that she was having seizure activity and that the dr would call with more details was like falling into a bottomless pit. Fortunately we were able to control her seizures with medication and by the time she was 13 she had outgrew them completely. She has been seizure free with no medication for about eight years now.

Miranda said...

Hey, I told you it wasn't anything and I tried warning you about the goop! I outgrew my seizures, but I am sure that baby doll there don't have them. I am sure it is nothing. Don't worry about it. When you worry, I worry. Sheesh. You are giving me more gray hair!