Today was a roller coaster ride.

Actually, last night was the start of the ride.  Brooks had a third seizure….which was good.  The hard thing was all the discomforts of being tethered to a bed for 3 days. As the restless night turned into a new day, some of those discomforts were dealt with, thanks to the phenomenal staff here.

Early in the day, after a few mixed messages about when the next step would take place, the Neurological team came by to check in with Brooks and to tell him that they had enough data from the grid to proceed to the next step!  The seizures have shown activity in a very discreet area of his brain and have been very consistent.  Tomorrow morning, they will map out this area and stimulate the electrodes on the grid in this area to determine exactly what that part of the brain is responsible for.  If the area affected does not involve critical cortex, it will be resected.  The concern, of course is whether or not it is critical cortex associated with speech and language.  There are encouraging signs, but we won't know until the mapping is done. There are a few different alternative endings to this story…..we will just have to wait and see.

The bummer for Brooks is the timing.  Whatever they decide, it will obviously involve another surgery. They need to remove the grid and replace his bone flap.  It would be fantastic if this could actually happen tomorrow afternoon, but the chances of that are pretty slim.  More likely, it will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, which means a few more days of bed rest and all the discomforts that brings with it.  Please pray for patience and acceptance of whatever the plan is.  In the scheme of life, a couple of days is a small price to pay for a lifetime of relief.  For that, we will all be so very grateful!!

One other thing….Brooks spent a few hours again participating in this memory study.  The young doctors that are running it were very grateful for his participation.  It made me very proud to be his mother!

Thanks again for all the support!

Mary