Update on Brooke: Diagnosis

We took Brooke to her appt at the neurologist this morning. Arnold was able to go with me and I am so thankful, my Mom was able to watch the two younger kids so we could go together. We followed the directions they gave us, but somehow ended up at another building, and I found myself just staring at the signs and finally a man asked me if i was lost. He told me it was the NEXT building down. so we got into the car and drove. We found the building number but not the name of the place, so we went in and I was so frustrated by then and asked the lady at the counter where it was. She said "you're here! you made it!" so thank goodness for that!



Anyway, we only sat in the waiting room for a second, it was really quick. The nurse took Brooke's weight/height and all that.. she is now 47lbs and 45 inches.. she has grown AGAIN! i swear that girl is going to be 7 feet tall ;-) Anyway, then we went back to a room, and finally the dr came in. I really, really liked him. He was kind to Brooke and very informative to us. He talked a mile a minute like most doctors, but he didnt mind me butting in every so often to ask questions.


Basically he told us that Brooke has epilepsy. They said she has had one seizure so far, that we knew of. Thats what happened in school when she blanked out and wet herself and all that. He said that there were unusual spikes in her brain waves, and there is something going on in her right quadrant in her brain. Hes not sure how severe/serious it is right now, so he wants her to get a brain MRI to get it checked out. He said some people have things wrong, or maybe that area didnt even develop right. No way of knowing right now. He said we will have to wait on the results from that before we make any more decisions. He said if it comes back abnormal, OR if she has another seizure that we notice, she will have to go on a daily medication. The meds are used to help prevent the liklihood of more seizures occuring, but it wont cure it. He said that otherwise, its our choice if we want to have her on the meds. So right now we are just watching, waiting and going to see how it goes. The dr said that thankfully, 70% or so of kids outgrow this.. and go on to be normal teens/adults. He said she has a good chance of being ok, which was reassuring. He also said that in the mean time we should keep an extra eye on her when she does things like swimming, bathing, climbing, etc.. things where she could slip, fall or hurt herself when blanking out. We were given emergency meds for her, in case she had one of the bad seizures, where you lose control and they want it stopped as soon as possible so they dont hurt themselves. Theres a good liklihood we wont even have to use it, which is what im hoping. He said that sometimes the problem in a certain part of the brain can spread to other parts and become a bigger problem. But we will pray that wont be the case!



So now we have a diagnosis. I know its a common occurence in kids, but its still tough to hear a Dr validate your worries and suspicions about something being wrong with your child. I just hate to think she has to go through this, and at SUCH a young age. I just hope and pray she is one of the lucky ones able to outgrow it. Maybe even so lucky that she wont have to take meds, that would be awesome. Its a little scary, but its also so new to us. The drs gave us the info about the National Epilepsy Foundation. numbers we can call if we have questions for nurses, and there is also a website to learn more about it. I am the kind of person who likes to learn ALOT about things, so im sure ill be looking into that.




They will call us soon after they set up the appt for Brooke to have her MRI. She will have to be sedated with it. I hope everything will go well with that.. she has never been under before. Anyway, when we left the nurse let her pick out a pink sucker and a few books.. i really thought that was neat. I really loved the people working there, they seemed very nice and knowledgable, and I feel like we are in good hands. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and messages during this time. Most of you know Im a huge worrier! Especially about the well-being of my kids. We appreciate any prayers you can spare for Brooke and our family in the upcoming months. Thanks :)