 |
| OP medical center ER |
 |
| Wolfsons always a smile |
This weekend was filled with some unintended life lessons. When we got back from Disney World on Friday night we all got settled in for the night and my eldest daughter had her first ever seizure. We had to take a trip to the ER and then onto the children's hospital. After the initial terror of seeing my eldest experience two seizures and the beginning of all the needed medical tests I began to thank God that I began college with a premed (till I realized I would have to deal with throw up) intent because the questions came in rapid succession from my girls.
Doctors and hospitals can speak in a foreign language at times with more anachronisms then the military MRI, CAT, ECHO, EEG, EKG ect.
First was the diagnosis of Epilepsy with my eldest. That was pretty easy explanation - When the electrical impulses in your brain misfires and goes nuts for a few minutes.
The things that got crazy to keep up explanations for were all the tests. First test was the EKG or Electrocardiogram it measures the hearts electrical activity. They did four of these over the course of our stay so that they could compare the PQRST waves of her heart to make sure that they were not the cause of the seizures. She did have a slight lengthening of the Q wave so we are going to have to follow up with the cardiologist but they think that is because of her thyroid issues. (The DNA she got from me stinks lol )
 |
| This is an image of the Echo |
 |
| The Q section of her heart beat had a slight delay before R |
The next test was an Echo cardiogram which is an ultrasound picture of the blood flow and structure of her heart. Thankfully her little heart is awesome just like I always thought ;)
Then we had to wait two days to get an MRI a Magnetic Resonance image of her brain. It is a detailed picture of her brain. The second seizure left a little section with what they equated to a brain bruise. They said her brain was good and everything checked out normally other than the little bruising.
On Friday we take Annie in for an Electroencephalograph or EEG which measure the brains electrical activity over a period of time and hopefully it will tell us what part of her brain is going nuts when she has a seizure and how we can avoid certain triggers that will cause future seizures.
Thankfully we are home and Annie is on anti seizure medication. This weekend opened up a whole new dramatic chapter in our lives. Between Daddy's cancer battle and all the other issues we have had my girls will come out of childhood with a firm grasp on medical terminology.
I guess that is one of the benefits of homeschooling we can take any of life's circumstances and turn them into lessons. Thanks to their natural curiosity every day is a learning opportunity.
I also think they like to shock the nurses too, when they go to explain something in simple terms and my girls whip out the right verbage and make the nurses look at them weird.
Oh in case you wondered DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. I could always remember what it stood for because it is fun to say :)
