EEG

Ryan had his short EEG this morning. For anyone wishing to know more about what those 3 letters mean here's the Wikipedia definition. (what did we do before wikipedia? ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroencephalography

Ryan's new neurologist wanted us to to have this test done before we proceeded with another MRI. Most people we know will be surprised that the doctor wanted us to go for a test that typical tests for seizure activity as Ive never really mentioned seizures with Ryan, and no he hasn't had the grand mal seizure activity people normally think about , or even little eye flutterings or unresponsive staring spells that many babies might have but his head control issues is something that has bothered me for a long time. He doesn't have the head control issues that you would normally associate with hypotonia eg weakness he has always been able to lift his head up high, but without any warning it will come crashing down, this can happen when hes lying or sitting. Although these episodes have significantly reduced since he was about 14 months, you still have to watch that he doesn't head butt you at any given moment when carrying him. His PT has also advised that it something she has never seen before in the multitude of kids shes treated, its as if there is a momentary loss of connection from the brain to the neck muscle. So when I was describing these to the neuro he asked me a simple question "what does your heart tell you?" and when I answered "that the head drops are very abnormal" He said we should have the EEG. The good part was that he didn't think they were infantile spasms (which is a much more serious problem than the name suggests!) but he felt there were other small motor seizures within the group that includes IS.

So as the EEG had to be sleep deprived (lack of sleep shows up different activity on the EEG than in a well rested individual) we couldn't let Ryan go to bed before 12am the night before and had to wake him at 4am. By our appointment time at 9.30 we had one cranky little boy on our hands. Cant blame him, I'm not too sweet when I'm missing sleep (mum, I see you nodding your head!) But Ryan really was a superstar for the lady while she measured his head and attached the electrodes, and went right to sleep when she was done. We should have our results in a few days.