A new neurologist and a fun surprise!
July 15, 2007 | Updates
This past week we had an appointment with Samuel’s new neurologist. I liked him. But the real test will come when I have a problem and need to get ahold of him. If he calls me back quick, he will be my new best friend. If not, we will be in the same boat as before we switched neurologists. Let’s hope for the first one!
The neurologist spent over an hour with us. He went through all of Samuel’s CT scans, MRI’s and EEG’s since the accident. The original MRI (a few days after the accident) showed a lot of swelling in the basil ganglia portion of his brain indicating that there should be some brain loss and damage there. The later MRI (about 8 months after the accident) doesn’t really show any damage. There is some indication that there has been a SLIGHT loss of brain mass and a SLIGHT increase in the size of the ventricles in the brain, but it is all very slight and hard to see. The neurologist tried explaining to me how that could possibly be when clinically, Samuel appears to have such severe brain damage. I nicely cut him off and told him how I explain it to others. I tell them that with an anoxic brain injury, it’s like you went into the brain and just stole a few cells here and there all over the place. It’s not enough in one specific place to show extensive damage. But it’s enough to break all the connections between the brain cells and make it very difficult for them to reconnect again. He seemed satisfied that I understood it and a little relieved that he didn’t have to break the bad news to me. But none of it was new news. I had heard it all before.
The new news we did receive though, concerned his last EEG in February. His original EEG, taken just a month after the accident did not show any signs of seizure activity. But it also showed slowed brain waves. The new EEG taken a few months ago shows that Samuel’s brain waves are often in normal range. That is very good news. And leads us to believe that he is very aware of all that is going on around him. But the bad news is there are signs of possible seizure activity throughout his brain. There are many spikes occuring throughout his brain that can and obviously do cause him seizures. BUT, the doctor also does not believe that the small startle seizures that Samuel normally has are hurting him. That is very good news. We discussed some new things to try with his medications and decided that as long as Samuel isn’t having more involved seizures, we won’t worry too much about trying to prevent the minor ones. Apparently, the startle seizures are very hard to control and would most likely require us to sedate Samuel to the point that he simply would never be startled. That is not a good trade off considering we seem to be able to control them fairly well as long as he gets enough rest and takes his current medication. So, we will try that for now and hope the futue only holds better things as far as the seizures go.
We were able to attend a family reunion over the weekend and really enjoyed ourselves. Samuel seemed to enjoy all that went on. I think one of his favorite things was watching all of his cousins slip and slide down a huge hill. It is amazing how far he has come and how well he is able to do in large crowds for long periods of time. We literally spent 12 hours one day with about 200 people in a great big lodge and he did just fine. I am so thankful for that and the opportunity we have to take him with us everywhere we go and let him enjoy as much as he can! I took a lot of pictures there and will post some later. Samuel did, unfortunately, have 2 large seizures the day before the reunion. I was not happy about that. So, I have put a baby camera in his room to allow me to monitor him more closely at night because I believe he may be having more seizures than I thought, but they are occuring in the early morning hours when I am not with him. So, we will see.
The other fun thing this week was a surprise gift Samuel received in the mail. You’ll notice that I removed the Jenn Swing from Samuel’s wish list. That is because a wonderful woman who works with my mom purchased one for Samuel. And we have already found it to be one of the best things ever purchased for him. He LOVES to sit in it outside and slowly swing back and forth. He was literally out in our backyard today in the new swing for hours! And he was perfectly content. The only other place he seems to be that content for that long is in his bed watching a movie. But any mom will agree that I would much rather have my kids outside enjoying the fresh air than inside watching TV! So, thank you, Kelli! We will probably get more use out of the swing than we’ll ever get out of his wheelchair because he loves it so much! We are so grateful for those around us who love our little guy like we do. And there are so many of you! Thank you!
To see Samuel laughing in the new swing, click the link below. It’s hard to hear him because Tom is teasing him and making him giggle. But you can hear him if you listen close in the first 30 seconds or so.
So, that’s about it for this week. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately as the next few days hold a lot of memories for us. Samuel’s birthday will be here on Tuesday and the 2-year anniversary of his accident will hit on Thursday. We are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for, but those are still hard days for me. I don’t know if that will ever change. I was telling Tom the other day that I avoid old videos or pictures because they are just too hard for me to see. He told me that was silly and that I just need to face them so I can get over it. But I tried that and it is just too hard. I love the little boy we have now and I see so much potential in him. I hate looking back and just want to look forward. I guess that’s why this week will be hard because it won’t really matter how hard I try, those memories will come back. So please pray that we can focus on all the good in our lives and the miracle that Samuel is and stay focused on the road ahead this week!
Keep praying!
Love,
The Jewkes
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
