In order to perform an EEG, the patient must be sleep-deprived so that they sleep during the test. SuperD jumped at this opportunity to stay up all night and play video games with C! Altogether, they only slept 3 hours that night. Well, SuperD went back to sleep after C and I left for the hospital. Keeping a 10YO boy awake on only 3 hours of sleep proved to be very difficult. He tried to sleep in the car. He tried to sleep in the hospital lobby. He tried to sleep in registration. He tried to sleep in the waiting room. Boy, was he mad at me for keeping him awake!
After all the electrodes were attached, he finally slept for about 30 minutes. That's all he got because the neurologist wanted to see him that same day. I bribed C to stay awake by taking him to IHOP, and I treated myself to some brioche French toast. YUM!
The neurologist was impressed by the amount of details I recalled from C's incident, and the video was very helpful, too. After his evaluation, he determined that a mini stroke was unlikely for such a young boy. He was leaning more toward a partial seizure or a confusional migraine. Either would explain why C was left confused and unable to communicate. In order to gain more clues, the neurologist ordered an MRI.
I was very worried about this test. How would my active little ninja lie still long enough for the technician to get pictures of his brain? Would he suffer from the same claustrophobia I feel?
Other than the trauma of having yet another IV in his arm, C was a trooper. The nurse said he was fantastic! He didn't move at all! They even let him have a picture of his brain! C said he didn't realize how big his brain really is!
The next week, the neurologist asked me to come in for an appointment to discuss the results of the MRI. As I sat in his waiting room, I began to get very nervous. The doc said he saw nothing to indicate that C was prone to seizures. There was no damage to indicate stroke or seizure, so he was convinced that C had experienced a confusional migraine. There is no conclusive evidence, but he seemed to have ruled everything else out. Unless C has migraines which increase in number or intensity, the doc said there was no need to see him again for migraines.
Then the doc told me that he had seen something else on C's MRI. C has a type 1 (mild) Chiari malformation. The base of his cerebellum extends about 6mm beyond the base of his skull. His condition isn't causing him any problems which would be associated with more severe types of malformation. In fact, it's possible that he will never suffer posterior headaches or numbness in his extremities caused by the brain pushing on the spinal cord. It's also possible that he may develop symptoms later in life. We just don't know. So, quite literally, C does have a big brain! As you might imagine, this news led to all kinds of jokes at our house.
So, I've decided to cease referring to my son as "C". I've toyed with several different nicknames, such as Megamind or Brainiac. But I think I've settled on "The Brain." Since we're huge Animaniac fans at our house, A will be known as "Pinky". After all, one is a genius. The other's insane. You can decide which is which.
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