Final Update (for a while, I hope)

Hi Ya'll, thanks again for all your comments and prayers. You all mean the world to me and your support means so much.

Here is my latest update from my updates :)

Yesterday morning I was told by a Neuro Intern that I could leave the hospital sometime after 1pm. Then I got a call a few hours later that the head Neurologists wanted me to stay again overnight to try to catch one of my headaches or blackout episodes on the EEG. I again reiterated that I could not conjure up these things and don’t know when I’ll have one again but they wanted me to stay another night (since seeing the Neurologist on May 4 I have not had a headache). I conceded but was not happy. When they came by to talk to me in person, I talked to them at length again and negotiated that if I could leave at 9pm last night then there would be 5 more good hours on EEG that MAYBE I could have a headache…(which I never ended up having), but at least I got to sleep in my own bed last night. [Don't know if I said it before, but that hospital bed with both monitors surrounding me (EEG and heart) gave me almost no room to sleep or change positions to sleep. One of my hips hurts from not sleeping well on Tuesday.]



A few hours after I was visited by the other Neurologist, my main Neurologist visited me. She talked with me for about 40 minutes. She said that all the EEGs have shown seizure activity brain waves during awake and sleep times (at random intervals and last 1-6 seconds in length) with no correlation of me doing anything in particular to cause the seizure activity (by looking at the video monitors). So, we still know that I’m predisposed to having a seizure. She reiterated that I need to be careful (no drugs that lower the threshold, no strobe lights, no hyperventilation – all things I’ve known for 8 years). She said that we’ve ruled out my heart (mostly – she’s still waiting on the halter (heart) monitor results) and ruled out that the nightmares are not seizure related. She said that if I have a headache or blackout to call or email her and she’ll prescribe a very low dose of migraine/seizure medication if I want it to try to see if it will get rid of the headaches. If it was to be tried and works, then we can say that they are probably just migraines (not seizure related) but at this point the EEG study is inconclusive on that point since I was unable to have one while there. Most likely the headaches have been caused by hormone levels (suspected by me and the doctor) since the last headache I had was earlier in pregnancy and now I’m not having them) but it still does not explain why I had them 2 years ago when I was not pregnant. She said that if the halter (heart) monitor comes back ok, she would still wonder if it might be beneficial to put in a chip (not sure what she called it) to monitor my heart for 6 months to see the activity (after I have the baby). I guess she’s not totally convinced that it’s not an irregular heartbeat although Cardiology cleared me and thinks I’m fine. She also mentioned that maybe we’ll still do the contrast MRI to check the brain blood vessels after I have the baby.

So, all in all, I’m glad I did the study and wish that I could have had a headache or something else, but I just could not conjure anything up!
I’m glad my heart has been mostly ruled out and that my nightmares are not seizures.

Thank you for your concern and prayers,
Amanda