Off Topic: Excuses To Miss Work

As if I didn't have enough to do... I started yet another blog. Excuses to Miss Work. My hope is that this might actually be useful to someone. ;) As opposed to my other blogs with topics such as: an obscure furniture maker from the Victorian era, my own ramblings about epilepsy, random philosophical quotes, family vacations to Oahu, family vacation to Finland, and contributing to a blog dedicated to solving the worlds problems "one beer at a time".

PET....

I'm still awaiting the report from Baptist Hospital regarding my PET scan. I'll probably call tommorow to find out what is taking them so long.

PET Scan Pics

Here are a selection of my 147 PET scan images that they put on a CD for me. I can't really tell much from them... so I will have to wait for a Dr. to analyze them for me.

Epilepsy Awareness Day

The local epilepsy awareness group with which I participate, NC EASE (North Carolina Epilepsy: Awarness Support Education) has organized an Epilepsy Awareness Day in November:

NC EASE and the Epilepsy Institute of North Carolina invite you to join us for our first annual Epilepsy Awareness Day.

The event will take place at the Epilepsy Institute, 1311 Westbrook Plaza Dr. Winston-Salem. From 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. on November 3rd, 2007.

There will be activities for children.

We will have a number of presentations and information on the following topics:
* Epilepsy and seizure disorders.
* First Aid instructions for seizures
* Tests for epilepsy
* New treatments for seizures
* Clinical trials for new treatments for epilepsy
* College scholarships for people with epilepsy or their family members
* Epilepsy support dogs

If you have any questions please contact us via email: coordinator@epilepsysupportnc.org

One month...

I am seeing my Dr. today. Hopefully the PET scan will provide some information of use. I have tried looking through them myself, but am obviously not qualified... as I can't tell a thing by examining the images. I'll try to get some posted soon.

My last seizure was exactly 1 month ago. Hopefully I can make it a few more decades without another. Wish me luck!

8 Thousand Hits

I got my 8 thousandth page hit today. Someone visiting from Proberta, California.

I started this blog so that I would not have to call up everyone I know to tell them what was going on with my seizures... they could all just check on me here. I never thought I would end up getting 8 thousand hits. This new-fangled Internet thingy is pretty cool. ;)

PET PICS

Here are the pics of me with my EEG leads wrapped tight to my head.

And the two techs who wrapped it.

This is me about to go into the PET scanner.

The PET Experience

I just got back from the imaging center at Baptist Hospital. The procedure was not that bad. Here's how it went:

I went and got EEG leads placed. They then wrapped my head tightly with gauss so that the leads would not fall off as they took me over to imaging. I get there and go over some paperwork and they request some cash before doing the test. Then they stick me with some saline fluid and a "butter-fly" needle. After a wee-bit of saline, the tech brougt out the radio-active stuff, glucose with radioactive flurine. Not much... just a few ml. He had to bring it out in a case about the diameter of my arm and perhaps 10" high. After inserting that, they had me sit in the dark for 45 minutes. The instructions were to try to rest and not think too much. THAT was rough. After about 30 minutes my head started hurting really bad. I'm not sure if it was lack of food, the EEG leads pressing into my head, or the radio-active positrons flying out of my head. But I made it through and then they removed the portable EEG & Leads. Then they put me in the tube detector thingy. It was a bit larger than an MRI, but not nearly as loud. I only had to stay in that for 10 minutes. And that was it!

I got a copy of the images. I'm still figuring out how to get the things off the disk and onto the net. Soon as I figure it out, I will post. I won't know any news about the test until my dr. or another Dr. gets to do the analysis.

Food v. PET scan

For this PET scan, they have instructed me to not eat after 7:00 A.M. All I get is water! I am going to be so hungry. But Christa said she would take me out for food after the test is done. I am thinking of a Texas Jack burger from Back Yard Burgers. Yum!

I suspect that they will attach the radioactive material to glucose and then since I have not had anything to eat, my body will send the sugar to where it is most needed in the brain. From there, the radioactive stuff should emit the positrons which are detected by the PET gizmo. I'll ask the techs and let you all know if I am correct.

Testing Tommorow

I'm getting a PET Scan and EEG test done tomorrow at Baptist Medical Center at their Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. I've never had a Positron Emission Tomography scan before, but as I understand it, they pump some radioactive stuff in your body and then use a detector to determine where it went... well, it is a bit more complex than that, so here is some info off a Radiology site.

Before the examination begins, a radioactive substance is produced in a machine called a cyclotron and attached, or tagged, to a natural body compound, most commonly glucose, but sometimes water or ammonia. Once this substance is administered to the patient, the radioactivity localizes in the appropriate areas of the body and is detected by the PET scanner.

Different colors or degrees of brightness on a PET image represent different levels of tissue or organ function. For example, because healthy tissue uses glucose for energy, it accumulates some of the tagged glucose, which will show up on the PET images. However, cancerous tissue, which uses more glucose than normal tissue, will accumulate more of the substance and appear brighter than normal tissue on the PET images.

I'll post more tomorrow. Hopefully with some pictures!