Friends,
I know Kris tried to send you an updte tecently about Cassie's and my trip to Seattle for eeg monitoring. I have been sleeping with her in the hospital room, and there has been no way to send out e-mails like we could last time, becuase we were only in the hotel room the first night before she was admitted.
We will be heading back to Alaska today. As Kris has already epressed, please pray that she will not have a seizure during the flight.
Following 4 full days of obserbing her seizures, the doctors are all sure that these seizures are a continuation of what she was having before. For kris and I, they seem less severe, but that's probably because she doesn't scream like she had in the past.
As for why 4 months seizure free and then having them start backup, the only eplanation for that is that 4 months tends to be the point when the brain begins functioning normally following the trama of surgery (or theof that of a stroke victum, for that matter.)
The good news is that Cassie never lost any motor skills in the last surgery, and all testing at that time revealed that most of her brain activity seemed to be coming from the right side anyway.
On monday, we travelled fro Harborview to Seattle Children's hospital for an FMRI (or a FUNCTIONAL MRI). They cannot perform this procedure at Harborview (yet).This is where they test right/left side while Cassie is actively doing things with her hands and feet during the scan. The idea is that the brain detail sort of "lights up" on the MRI showing where that activity originates. If you recall, this same sort of thing was done ust prior to her surgery, oly uisng Chemicals and muscle stimulation. (A WADA test).
The FMRI results will really nail down where things are happening in terms of control, and where they aren't.
But it will be a couple weeks before we know the results of that, along with the results of her stay this week. But they can tell us that she is indeed still having seaizures (no kindding, right?) and that they seem to be localized to the left side of the brain.
While we wait on all of these results, Cassie may be prut on an additional medication or two (There are still 2 or three she hasn't tried.) I hate the idea of having to go thru that again, but it seems silly not to if there is any possibility that medication can still bring everything under control. In short, the tests will also determine if an aditional surgery is an option.
How do we feel about all this? Well, I'm a bit worn out being with cassie all week. For the surgery back in August, Kris and I were both here so we were able to sort of break down at different times . . . . . I can;t figure any other way to put it. Now I see why kris was so haggerred after returning from Cassie;s first observation back last May, that led up to the surgery in August. Cassie is still my hero and seeing what she puts up with just shames me when I start feeling miserable.
Our friends here in Seattle are still here, and Pastor Ray has once again been a real brother in some difficyult times. I need to especaially thank his church members later in a leter . . . but for now, just know that the Body of Christ is still active and your prayers for our well being are being answered.
God bless each of you.
Gary & Cassie
