Day 3?

No school today for Will and it's unfortunate because his class went to Newtown for their monthly swimming trip.  Why wouldn't we (I get to go, too) go swimming?  Today was a medical day and not because he had a cold.  While we were in Florida, Will had two "episodes" that we and his pediatrician wanted to get checked.  He vomited a little, then stared to the right with his head turned and was unresponsive to stimuli.  The first time was at night, while he had been asleep and after a diaper change and little crying, he was sound asleep again and remained so all night.  The second time was in the afternoon, five days later.  Same presentation, though he didn't need a new diaper and napped for around an hour.

We'd seen the neurologist one year ago and he mentioned to watch for seizures (since that's a big thing for neurology), but neither we nor he expected them since Will's diagnosis is still unique--we're still pulling for Dunham syndrome.  Today's visit included an electroencephalogram (EEG) and it confirmed our suspicion: Will had "partial seizures" (named partial since they originate in "part" of the brain).  The electrical pulses that are the cause are found in Will's occipital region and are stronger on the left side, which caused his right-looking reaction.  The neurologist expects Will to have more, but optimistically, he noted that some children grow out of them as their brains develop.  In the meantime, to prevent more scariness and keep him in better fitness for learning, Will's now taking a seizure prevention medicine, called Trileptal.  We'll have an MRI done this month, then follow-up with another EEG and neurology appointment, probably in early February.

So, we had an eventful day traveling to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia satellite offices in Chalfont.  It's about the same distance as the main campus in the city, but there's less traffic and parking is free, plus Maggie's office is around one-third of the way there.  She left work early so we could both be with Will for his first EEG and I'm very thankful since she asked very good questions (none that I would have generated) with the doctor.  His responses were all good, his plan makes sense, and Will's prognosis is uncertain (it's hard to tell at this point since it's so early), but I'm optimistic.  With appropriate management, Will should have no restrictions, so we're still hoping he can drive a car someday!  It's a big jump from swimming, but I think we'll get there.  For now, he was super excited about his bath tonight (his hair looked very punk from the goop from the EEG leads) and we'll go swimming with his class next month.