The MRI

The MRI which was ordered on January 2^nd was scheduled for March 16^th so the day arrived with V being on Trileptal now and Tegretol being a thing of the past. The complete seizures also a thing of the past but the constant grunts/head drops/absence seizures being a daily occurrence. With this came changes in V's behavior and just himself. The teachers in the daycare noticed the difference – his two year old teacher whom he was really attached to could see the marked contrast from just two months ago as well as his lack of love for reading. He continued to be a happy boy though and fortunately, since he was otherwise healthy, he continued to be fine in other respects.

            The MRI had to be done under sedation. This was obviously a big deal and we did it such that we could still drop R to school and then go. The staff was fantastic but to see V going through the sedation – then he was lost to us when he was wheeled to the room till they brought him back. He was talking to the staff all along on his way in. He was not in the least bit scared and the staff explained every step to this three year old so that he knew exactly what was going on – the respect that the staff have shown to this child is something that is really touching and I really feel like that made our hospital visits something to look forward to. When in recovery, V could have juice that they gave. Being a children's hospital recovery room, the room was full of little ones all around, including a nine-month old at the next bed who was having her third liver transplant. That was sad consolation that our problem was so tiny in comparison.

            The pediatrician called with the results and said that it showed an abnormality in the right temporal lobe of the brain. She showed me the pictures so that I could understand what she was talking about. Both she and the neurologist said that most likely but not definitely was that the cause of his seizures. By then I had read that the cause is unknown for more than 90% of seizures. 

            The recommendation was that we do a more detailed MRI where a fluid is injected into the body and its path followed to the brain so that they could focus on the specific area in the right temporal lobe. Wasn't I learning more about the brain and I was getting more and more interested. At the time I had to take up a major, I never wanted to do medicine.

            In the meantime, life has to go on – V got hooked onto watching more DVDs as that became his source of security. He also got hooked onto working more on the computer. The other thing we started noticing was that he was able to identify the letter "s". He would realize that the letter was "s" but would remember it. He was unable to identify, remember and recall other letters. I didn't give it much thought – after all, he was a boy and he was three – he was very different from R from the time he was born (even before). So why give it more importance? The beginning of just a few issues. He didn't know his colours either and the director of the daycare who had dealt with infinite kids had given me several examples of different boys who didn't know their colour labels until after they had turned five. So it obviously wasn't a big deal. In the face of his daily seizures, nothing was a big deal.