This post may be a little disjointed because I’m trying to piece together information from emails Cathy sent me. She doesn’t feel like talking right now.
Maria has definitely had multiple seizures in the last few days. They are partial seizures, also known as local or focal seizures, meaning they affect only parts of the brain rather than the entire brain at once. They usually start in her left hemisphere usually, but also sometimes start on the right and sometimes both. The doctor had never seen this seizure pattern before (because Maria always has to present symptoms doctors have never seen before). The biggest concern is that the seizures are affecting her autonomic system, meaning her breathing and heart rate, so there’s a very small possibility that she could have a seizure, her heart could stop, and she’d die. Now there’s a happy thought.
How do they treat this? Well, they started by giving her Valium…through her rectum. I actually looked that up because I wanted to be sure I wasn’t just reading Cathy’s email wrong. Yup, that’s one thing they do to combat seizures. Cathy said it really turned Maria into a zombie. However, that’s not the long term treatment.
For that, she is taking Trileptal. Side effects seem to be the usual culprits (fatigue, headache, nausea) that you see in just about any prescription medicine.
They did her medical tests this afternoon. Her stomach and lungs all looked fine, no abnormalities or sign of damage. There might be some minor reflux but nothing serious. He took lots of biopsies just to be sure. Her BAER looked better than the last and the brain activity in response to sound is improving steadily.
The audiologist said to stop using the hearing aids, which is good because we haven’t used them in months. However, she’s pushing the cochlear implant again. That’s kind of like a surgically implanted hearing aid. The biggest problem is that they have to destroy the cochlea, which would destroy any natural hearing Maria has. Plus, of course, it’s surgery. She said that Cathy should decide within a month or so because the window of opportunity for best results is closing.
Maria is probably getting out tomorrow.