Home Safe and Sound

We made it home!

We got stuck in a big ice and snow storm in Kansas last night with cars going spinning off the road all around us. So – we decided to pull off in Salina and stay the night there.

It is good to be home. Maggie is a totally different girl right now than she was on Friday. What a difference sleep and medications make.

We are now anxiously awaiting results of all the tests from last week. I’ll update the site when we get word.

Thanks for praying for us.

Picture from Children’s

Leaving Saturday, Another MEG Test on Friday

Update 3: Maggie gets released from Children’s on Friday morning, gets her MEG test done at 11:00 am, and then we head back to the hotel. We head home on Saturday to give for Maggie to get settled on her meds and wait for the ice storm that has hit Missouri to clear out.

Update 2:  Things are quite fluid here. The doctors are concerned with Maggie traveling and getting ramped up on her medicines so quickly – wouldn’t be good to get stuck in Kansas with Maggie having seizures. I’m not sure when they will release her at this point, but it will be sometime this weekend. Her updated MEG test is still on Friday.

Update: Change of direction – The new MEG test is tomorrow at 11:00 am, and we’ll be checking out of the hospital then to go do it, then headed home after the test over. We’ll be home some time on Saturday – read more below.

Maggie’s doctors want to keep her through Monday to do some more monitoring, as well as do some more tests on the MEG. They picked up some good signals from the MEG test on Monday, but want to try and pick up more data from the insula region of the brain, especially with her being un-medicated. The insula region is their primary focus of concentration right now. That area is where the tumor was originally resected from, is quite deep, and where they are seeing most of the activity from the EEG come from.

Update 2/21/08

Maggie’s seizures  began taking off around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Although they have not been terribly rough seizures, the doctors have been able to pick up some great information from them. It looks like the seizures are coming from some deeper parts that they can’t see well. They are hoping that the MEG test Maggie took on Monday is going to reveal some more information to confirm that.

As of right now, they are looking at modifying some of Maggie’s medications to better target the type and location of her seizures. They feel it is safer right now to experiment some more with medications rather than do invasive monitoring. The depth of location in the brain and location of blood vessels surrounding the seizure location is making surgical intervention an unlikely possibility.

Although it could change later today, we’ll likely we’ll be leaving to come home some time on Friday, arriving on Saturday.

They doctors are going to reintroduce Maggie’s meds later today. She’s doing fantastic.

Just Met with Maggie’s Doctor

Maggie’s doctor came by on rounds this morning. They are picking up a lot of information around the temporal area that would potentially lead to the seizures that Maggie has been having. That’s great news.

She has not had any seizures yet, but we expect them to begin occurring later today / tonight. Since it has been 4 + years since Maggie has had any seizures without being medicated, we have no idea what to expect. Please pray that they come quickly, Maggie is able to remain strong and courageous through them, and that she recovers just as quickly.

No word yet on Maggie’s MEG test except they also got some good information.

Quiet Night

Maggie had a relatively quiet night. We played Scrabble and Sorry before heading off to sleep around midnight. We are expecting the seizures to hit later today / tonight as the full effects of no medicine begin to hit.

Thank you for praying Maggie through this week.

Settled In At the Hospital

Maggie is finally settled in at the hospital. She is the inaugural patient on Children’s new video monitoring floor. The staff here are amazing.

Maggie goes cold-turkey off of her seizure meds tonight, so her seizures should begin kicking in tomorrow. She’s quite nervous, but ready to get on with it.

We talked to the MEG testing center yesterday, and they were quite pleased with the data they were able to collect.

More later.

Maggie’s MEG Test is Finished

The MEG test is finished. The testers feel they got some good data, but will be calling us later today to verify that. Maggie held up really well.

Maggie gets admitted to Children’s tomorrow morning, and then begins the second series of tests.

Maggie’s MEG Testing Is Underway

Maggie’s MEG testing began about 10 minutes ago. She’s doing really well, very calm.

While the testing is going on, she has to remain completely still for about 2 – 3 hours. She’s allowed some in-between breaks.

The MEG room is like a walk-in freezer – not cold, but completely enclosed with a pressure tight door, and she’s the only one in there while the test is going on. They will try to have results from today’s test by the end of the week, but no guarantees.

We Made It!

Well, we finally made it – after trudging through freezing rain and snow from Independence to St. Louis. I thought that we had left that in Colorado Springs

We are resting a little in the hotel, then taking Maggie to a mall for a bit of shopping before it all starts tomorrow. After Maggie’s 5 hour MEG test on Monday, we will be spending time with Will and Carmen McCauley, Fred and Bonnie Correl’s daughter and son-in-law.