Friday, July 16, 2010

Follow-up visits

We were at Duke yesterday for our follow-up visits with the neurosurgeon and neurologist. Jack also had an EEG done.

The neurosurgeon was very impressed with how well Jack is doing physically. Jack walked a few steps for him and he thought he looked real good considering his surgery was just last month.

We discussed the hallucinations with both doctors and neither really knows the cause of them. The neurologist speculated that it could be something similar to "forced normalization" where the brain reacts to the stoppage of seizures by producing a psychosis or vice versa. He also said it could be just the brain re-balancing from all the trauma of the surgery, the different medicines, etc. He was optimistic that it is a temporary thing and that he should continue to improve.

We also discussed the results of the EEG. His right side looks normal, i.e. no seizures. And interestingly, he can still see the seizures firing away on the left but since the disconnections were made, there's no manifestations of them. Pretty amazing.

And of course, the best part of all, still no seizures since June 2nd. So, we will continue on the one medication for now and hope that the hallucinations subside soon.

Well, we got home late last night, around 8:30. I am packing and heading for NY for 10 days on business. We will talk to you all soon.