Another Call From St Louis

I spoke with the nurse again today. It's almost freaky having a Dr's office call YOU to check on your child.
Here's our most recent plan.
* Blood work- she faxed me the script and we will do this *hopefully* tomorrow afternoon.
* He's up to 75mg AM and 100mg PM on the Zonegran. He cannot go up to much farther on the dose- which mean if he continues to have seizures, we may be switching medications.
* Admission to the St Louis hospital for a 24-48 hour (could be longer, but no shorter) ' videoed seizure watch'. We will begin the paper work for this. She said since he's not having *major* seizures everyday they wouldn't push this to be done now. It will be most likely Decemeber when we get this done.

I asked about a fMRI. The nurse said she would ask Dr Brunstrom and get back to me.
Some of you maybe interested in this. It's a functional MRI.

fMRI is becoming the diagnostic method of choice for learning how a normal, diseased or injured brain is working, as well as for assessing the potential risks of surgery or other invasive treatments of the brain.

Physicians perform fMRI to:
* examine the anatomy of the brain.
* determine precisely which part of the brain is handling critical functions such as thought, speech, movement and sensation, which is called brain mapping.
* help assess the effects of stroke, trauma or degenerative disease (such as Alzheimer's) on brain function.
* monitor the growth and function of brain tumors.
*guide the planning of surgery, radiation therapy, or other surgical treatments for the brain.




*** brain mapping
Mapping the brain's surface using small electrodes to stimulate a nerve so its electrical response can be measured. By determining the role of specific nerves in a patient, this technique helps surgeons avoid damage to sensitive areas while operating on the brain.