Saturday, October 03, 2009

EEG a success!

olive's test went really well! thanks for all the happy vibes and prayers! we got the wrong directions to the place where the EEG was being performed and wound up downtown at the actual children's hospital vs in one of their outpatient clinics in gahanna which resulted in david and i punching the dash board because of our tardiness (20 minutes late!) one of the foundational things that david and i agree on is that being late is a terrible, offensive, rude, annoying thing so both our blood pressures were up when we finally arrived. not only that but we were already stressing over the notion that olive had to go to sleep during the test to get an accurate result, which seemed incredibly improbable. because her appointment was at noon, i gave her 2.5 mg of melatonin at 11:30 to help her calm down and get nice and sleepy. but then we were of course late so it was a huge fight to keep her awake while we drove all over town to try to get to the close to home center on broad street.

this worked to our advantage though and she was almost completely out before the electrodes were attached to her head. which by the way was painless for her, painful for me. they had to attach ~40 electrodes all over her head, then wrap it all up in gauze and tape to keep it in place. it looked... terrifying. sick. pitiful. when the tech turned down the lights to let her sleep i sniffled a little looking at her video feed on the camera. she just looked like such a sick little child and i was struck by the image i suppose. (they video taped her for legal reasons im sure, in case she had a seizure during the procedure). they let her sleep for 20 minutes while they recorded her brainwaves then, wait for it... they woke her up by flashing strobe lights on her. i mean i know they had to do this but i'm a mother hen and i hated seeing her waking up SO FREAKED OUT. we get the results back by friday so keep those happy vibes and prayers coming!

4 comments:

Violet said...

Oh man! That must have been really tough, with little Olive being so little and all. Reading things liekt his makes me have an even greater appreciation for my Mom.. watching me get so sick (chemo stuff) and not being able to do anything. Yuck. Sending really good thoughts your family's way... I think the fact that she didn't have a seizure during the flashy light wake-up is a good thing. Very good!

Have a great weekend!

xo,
Violet

JVH said...

jenny,
i cant believe that you got her asleep! wow. what would happen if she wasnt able to fall asleep??
&& when the lights started flashing and they woke her, how long until you were able to calm her down?

still praying for great results! hang in there jenny :)

mandi said...

oh man. it is so hard seeing our kids undergo testing. sounds like you guys really did well- and little miss olive- way to go! sleeping on cue! what a trooper : )

Anonymous said...

Wow, I haven't been on here in a while, but can't believe everything you guys are going through. I can not imagine having to see my baby that way. Your family is in my thoughts and prayers.

What a tuff little girlie you have!