Sam is undergoing a 6 hour EEG today at Medical City in Dallas. He was not pleased to learn of this procedure. This is putting it lightly.

A number of years ago, Sam had a sleep deprived EEG and it lasted a whopping one hour. It was a miserable session that he and I endured. Electrodes and wires, cold adhesive cream, dark rooms, TVs that didn't work well, and quiet. There was lots and lots of quiet. Sam didn't like the quiet. He screamed bloody murder as the electrodes were glued onto his body. He was tiny, fragile, and his lack of coordination was even more obvious as he kicked and screamed. His brain was telling his body to defend itself and he could not get the parts working together to fend anyone off.

Today, Sam is not sleep deprived and he is much bigger. The doctor and the facility is much better suited for his needs. He can work on his writing, math, watch movies, eat lunch and all together just hang out. Albeit with electrodes and monitors that he is connected to for 6 hours.

Let me pause here: some of you have never felt the horror of watching your small child get connected to machines that will monitor their internal functions, brain waves, or have to hold your little one while they are injected with drugs that will render them unconscious. Their eyes roll back, their face becomes expressionless, their head falls to the side and they stop moving. You place your hand on their chest just to ensure their heart is still beating and that the monitors are not lying. This isn't an experience you want to go through and it's a site you never want to see. Unfortunately, in Sam's short life we have gone through this more times than I would like to recall. It sucks. Simple as that. Today he isn't unconscious but everything else applies.

So why is Sam having a 6 hour EEG? You can check out the video & read the story by clicking here to view Are These Seizures? on my MySpot page. Secondly, this is a necessary follow up. We also had an MRI that the doctor thought he saw brain atrophy. Not good words to hear from your doctor. We were told that the brain atrophy could have been there since birth OR it could be an ongoing concern. It would take a few years and another test for them to determine anything specific regarding this problem. During our initial appointment with this new doctor a few weeks ago, we brought our laptop and showed the doctor this video and some others just like it that his teacher filmed at school. The doctor examined the results from the previous EEG and the MRI results we had in hand. He didn't feel there was any brain atrophy from the initial MRI. He did want to perform an extended (6 hour) EEG to determine whether these mental pauses or lapses were seizure related.

Here we are waiting. I'm at work, Luke is hanging with his cousins and Sam & Ang are at the hospital in Dallas. They arrived at 9:10am and Sam wasn't "hooked up" until 12:10pm (that is a three hour window). I just spoke to Ang and she said Sam screamed and cried because he was so afraid. He just had the allergy back scratch test done and he knew this wasn't going to be anything like that. Doesn't change the fear factor though. Ang has been a trooper and she is hanging in there. Sam got on the phone and told me, "Hey Dad. I was very upset while they put the things on me. I even cried tears."

So I sit here, say a prayer and wait for the hours to tick by. This reminds me of when I was in China a number of years ago and Angie called me in the middle of the night. It was the middle of the day here in the States and Sam was throwing such a tantrum that she had to pull the car off the highway and get Luke out to protect him. The difference today, Sam is in control but he is scared. I'm just 25 miles away. I still feel as helpless as I did when I was half-way around the world. This too sucks.

I'll post the results when we know more.