Brain Waves.

I'd written a long post to accompany these pictures this morning, and somehow it was lost when I published.

This past Friday, Ben's neurologist called and asked us to come in on Monday to discuss his results. She said she wanted to "gather some more information" from us and would like us to come in as soon as possible.

I'm sure you can imagine I was a little nervous. And to have to wait until Monday...

When we pulled into CNNH yesterday, Ben got upset and told me he didn't want to go in, and he didn't 'want to wear the hat' again. I felt so bad for him. I told him nobody was going to wear a hat today (thank God the doctor didn't make a liar out of me).

We went inside and were seen very quickly. Dr. Beyderman sat us down and made sure to tell us (or me, since Ben was already engrossed in a Toy Story 3 matching game on my phone) that we shouldn't be alarmed, and that she had wanted us to come in because it would have been too confusing to discuss this over the phone.

She showed me the printout above and started to tell me about what they'd found from Ben's EEG. His variations were normal, she said, but they'd found something curious that they couldn't quite explain. At 68 different times during his 25-minute EEG, his brain showed a 'spike' - something that your or my untrained eye wouldn't be able to discern -- but that the neurologists had noticed. If you click on the picture above, you will see where she circled the spikes.

They all happened in conjunction with one another, and at the same time - 68 different times. She said that she sat down with the director and pulled out textbooks, and called other neurologists to consult with them, because they're so puzzled. He wasn't experiencing seizures, but there was definitely something going on. They all occurred in roughly the same part of his brain.

So, Ben has to have an MRI at CHOP. They want to be able to get a better picture of his entire brain, rather than just looking at his brain waves, so that they might be able to solve the mystery of why this is happening. It's all a lot to take in, and I'm not sure that I'm necessarily worried, but I'd like to do whatever we can to help them figure it out.

Ben will have to be under sedation for the MRI, which I was actually relieved to find out. I've had a brain scan before and I wouldn't wish one on my worst enemy - nevermind a 4 year-old.
The MRI will be 12/30 at 9:30am. Fingers crossed that all ends well.