Merry Christmas!!!

I wish you all a very wonderful Christmas!!!

Epilepsy Shot

I got my yearly flu shot today... if only they had a yearly epilepsy shot... one can hope? right?

PET Analysis Report

I finally got a copy of the report from my P.E.T. scan. The good Dr.s at WFUBMC provided me with this:

FINDINGS:
There is evidence of prior right frontal craniotomy. An area of encephalomalacia is identified deep into the craniotomy site. No metabolic activity is identified in the region of the encephalomalacia. The remainder of the brain demonstrates normal and symmetric activity. No addiional areas of hypo or hypermetabolism.
**************CONCLUSION**********************
1. Status post right frontal craniotomy with underlying encephalomalacia.
2. Otherwise normal and symetric metabolic activity within the cerebral and cerebellar hemisphers bilaterally.
**********************************************

Wow, so that is a lot of stuff. So I looked up all the funky M.D. words (and provided links for your pleasure) and determined that:
1. I have had brain surgery before and there is scar tissue.
2. My brain does not have any crazy activity with regards to blood flow.
3. Both sides of my brain are functioning in the same way.
4. No tumors detected.
5. I still have idiopathic epilepsy - that is: the M.D.s don't have a clue as to why I am having seizures.

Blogger V. Squirrels

Evidentlly I'm not the only Epilepsy blogger that took time to blog about their squirrel issues. Sicilianna, a My.Epilepsy.Com blogger, writes this:

I woke up at 4:30am to the sound of some sort of critter making noise in the ceiling. Last February we captured a family of flying squirrels that had nested in our attic. I fear some little cousins may have heard there was a vacancy and taken up residence. Once I realized the rolling of acorns and scurrying of tiny feet was not going to stop any time soon, I gave up on falling back to sleep and decided to get out of bed.

Check out her blog: Sicilianna's blog : Always move forward! My Life (So Far!) With Epilepsy.

Off Topic: Blogger V. Squirrels

I arrived home yesterday to the unmistakable sound of a Squirrel in the wall. Yes, a squirrel stuck in an interior wall of the house - scratching and clawing at the wall in a vain effort to climb the Sheetrock. Why unmistakable? Because the same thing happened last year - one of the neighborhood squirrels managed to make his way into the attic and then, due to an odd architectural feature of the house, managed to slip down one of the gaps into the wall.

So I proceeded to listen carefully against the wall, make a guess as to which section of the wall in which the squirrel was trapped, then cut a hole in the wall. Once the hole was opened, Ryan and I gave fair warning to Christa that she may want to exit the room for a moment while we extracted the vicious beast. After a few minutes of chasing the squirrel around the room, I managed to bag him and then let him out the front door.

I was pleased with the work until I went upstairs to cover the hole and heard a second squirrel scratching away in a different area of the wall. Ug. Same routine as before, except this extraction required two holes as my first guess was wrong. After the beast was released, I covered up the holes and called it a night.

This morning I awoke to the dreaded sound of scratching. One of the little beasts was trapped again... this time in yet another section of wall. I did not have time to get him out this AM, so he is still there. Hopefully I can get him out tonight...

Brain Radiator

I'm not sure if you will see any clinical trials on this little gizmo, but it is still pretty cool. The idea is that by cooling the brain, you can reduce seizures. I found this at the New Scientist Invention Blog.

In severe epileptic fits, over-excited brain cells fire at such a rate they can raise the brain's temperature in that area. This causes more nerves to fire in a feedback mechanism that makes the fit even worse. One way of preventing such escalating fits is to cool the area of the brain that is susceptible.

So Takashi Saito and colleagues at Yamaguchi University in Japan have developed a heat pipe that is surgically implanted into the affected region of the brain and then connected to a heat sink on the outside of the skull. This device carries heat away from the affected area, keeping it cool and reducing the chances of severe epileptic fits in future.

Here is an image from the patent application:

Get some sleep

This article I found on Epilepsy.Com contains some interesting info on sleep & epilepsy. Check it out.

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!

Grateful for the Past 11 Days

Scott had another tonic clonic seizure this evening around 6:00 pm while at the Epilepsy Institute. He did not injure himself (thank the Lord!) but had to be put on oxygen for a while. He is resting now. We are grateful for the past 11 seizure free days and realize that 11 days is more than most epileptics have without a seizure. Dr. Dean is going to send him for some more tests - presumably some time later this week. I'll keep you posted as soon as I learn more. Please join us in saying a prayer of thanks that Scott was not injured this evening. Please also keep him in your prayers as he undergoes additional testing.

Thanks everyone,

Christa

3 days...

Well, I have to start again... 3 days no seizures. Discouraging, but a lot of people would be thrilled to make it that long. I count myself fortunate. :)

Another Day.... Another Seizure

Scott had another tonic clonic seizure this evening. Our son found him seizing around 8:00 pm in our living room. During this seizure he only stopped breathing for a minute or so. Luckily Scott's only injuries seem to be a bruise on his right jaw and a slight headache. He is resting now. We will try to update everyone again tomorrow on his condition.

Christa