Quarterly Neuro Check

The day after Charles' ear check, he had his quarterly neuro check with his neurologist at Children's Hospital. Though we were dissapointed to know his doctor (Meredith Schultz) is leaving Colorado in June, we were pleased to hear that his doctor could be the very-senior neurologist who Charles first met the first time he was ever in the hospital with seizures. During this evaluation (which he idealy has quarterly) the doctors noticed something that I hadn't really ever before. When Charles runs, he swings his left arm as he should, but his right arm stays bent, slightly back, and doesn't really swing. As a result, the doctors think it's still possible he has this "Cortical Dysplasia" - because if he's having symptoms in ONE side of the body, it can mean there is "something" in the OTHER side of the body - so in this case, a possible blip (if you will) on the left side of his brain. This doesn't really change the treatment - it's still his daily medicine to prevent seizures, but it would mean he wouldn't outgrow it (as he would if it was just the infantile benign myoclonus). So, if the medicine manages it, they don't change anything. However, if he "failed" the medicine and failed a 2nd medicine....THEN, they would consider surgery to remove the cortical dysplasia. However, that's somewhat unlikely to ever get to the point. "Failing" a medicine means that even when the child has his medicine everyday, he's still having seizures - meaning his seizures aren't controlled with medicine. So, in total, you have to fail 2 different kinds of medicine to even be considered for surgery. We obviously hope to NEVER get to that point. However, if we did, then the seizure disorder would be theoretically "cured" if it was cortical dysplasia AND it was removed. Well, I'm trying to get pics from this appointment up, but I need to upgrade how much memory, apparently. On April 24th, Charles has an evaluation with a pediatric physical therapist to see if he would benefit from some physical therapy for the apparent OR potential weakness in his right side.

Ear Check - Post Tubes Surgery

In March Charles had tubes in his ears - after Mommy spent a fair amount of time putting the doctors in order to get it done! Anyway, today Charles had a post tubes check up to see how he was doing and to make sure they looked good. The Dr. made the point of getting in a dig about how she's got her "New York" game back on "except without the yelling" - well, a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do lady! :-) Charles' ears looked great and they were healing perfectly. Hopefully that continues. Ken feels strongly that if the ears are good, then Charles won't get ear infections, potentially causing him to be sick and thereby getting seizures. We'll see, time will tell. I'm looking forward to Kaiser getting specialist offices in the south end of town this year or next so we don't have to drive to the Franklin building just for an ear doctor. During his appointment, Charles had another ear test and his hearing had improved! So, that's always good news. He enjoys the fish tank at the ENT's office.