EEG Results are In

Happy Saturday.  It is early.  The house is quiet.  It looks rainy and cold outside, but inside I am cozy and warm in my big blue fleece robe and fuzzy slippers.  The coffee is hot and plentiful.  Chip is still snuggled upstairs in his bid.  Even TWDITW is still sleeping and not bothering me yet.  I relish mornings like this.

I am grateful for so much in my life, but I am supremely grateful for the good news at Chip's doctor's appointment yesterday. The results from his EEG a couple of weeks ago show the abnormalities in his brain are very infrequent.  I don't know what "very infrequent" means in terms of number of abnormalities per hour or per day, but in his past EEGs he was having many, many abnormalities every hour. Vast improvement.  The longest abnormality recorded with this recent EEG was 2 seconds.  The doctor said with those results Chip is not having seizures and the medication is at the correct dosage and doing its job.  Hooray!  Outside of an answer to my big prayer that one day the doctor can say, "It's a miracle! His brain activity is perfectly normal!" it was a pretty great report!

The doctor then stood up, looked at Chip and said this:  "Now, I am going to lecture you.  I am a parent and a doctor, so I need you to hear this loud and clear.  Your brain is doing 90% of the work to suppress this irregular activity in your brain and protect your body from having a seizure.  You MUST provide the other 10% of support that helps keep the lid on the pressure cooker of activity that is happening in your brain.  First, you absolutely MUST take your medication.  And don't get mad at your parents when they ask you if you have taken it.  It takes a team to manage a condition like this and it is not because they don't trust you, but because they care so much about you that they want you to take your medication.  Second, you absolutely MUST get plenty of rest.  Sleep deprivation is one of the worst ways you can weaken the strength of your brain and its ability to hold back a seizure.  You must rest to give your brain the support it needs.  Third, even a small amount of drugs and alcohol can affect your brain and weaken its ability to do what it has to do to hold back these seizures.  You might get lucky a time or two of missing your meds or staying up until 3 in the morning, but I promise it only takes one time where the lid blows off the pressure cooker and you have a seizure.  So, you do everything you can to support your brain and give yourself the best chance for success."

Do you love this guy, or what?

It is hard to hear this kind of warning because you don't want to believe the situation is so dire, but it will inspire you to do what you can to help yourself.  Also, really appreciate him telling Chip it is my job to ask if he took his meds and to go to bed!

Next up, we will get Chip moving forward on some driving lessons and get his driver's permit in hand so he can start practicing behind the wheel of a car!  Yikes!  Did I really want that?

In other news....

• My girl Beth is moving to a new neighborhood and I went out to see her new house this week.  It is gorgeous.  There will definitely be some wine consumed on that back patio!  So happy for her and can't wait to see the place with her lovely touch on it. 
• Work has been busy.  I got to work on a hard price analysis this week for a co-worker and it was challenging because MATH - but it felt good to stick my toe into proposal work for a minute.
• TWDITW bit me a couple two or three times this week.  Not through the skin and there was no blood, but it hurt.  Such a jerk face.  All of the incidents happened while I was sitting on the couch.  As soon as I sit down, he jumps up and lays next to me or on me and when I try to move him to get up or adjust his elbow so it isn't digging into my leg, he snaps.  I am not a super fast learner, but after this week his days of laying next to anyone on the couch are over.  I just want him to be as sweet at the end of the day as he is in the morning.  Mornings he is just darling and playful and sweet and cute.  Evenings, not so much.  
• I have several little projects to work on around the house on this rainy weekend.  Going to hang some new art and continue my Swedish death purge.  I am finding this process so dang satisfying! 
• I have not been juicing as much as I intended to, so I am going to try prepping some veggies so they are all clean, cut and ready to shove through the juicer.  I think veggies start losing some of their goodness once they are cut, but it is time consuming to do all that washing and cutting in the mornings.  I will forgo a little vegetable deterioration to remove any obstacle (excuse) to getting a green juice in my body every single day. 

That is all I have for this lovely Saturday morning!  I hope your weekend is excellent and you do something kind for yourself!