Neuro Appointment

Yesterday we went and saw the neurologist, Dr Parks, up in Augusta.

We were blessed to have the kids' godparents come with us to the appt so that they could be present for the appt and also help with the kiddos in the waiting room :)  

waiting:

The appt was so laid back and FAST!  

I did some paper work, Titus got his vitals done, and waited maybe 1.3 minutes in the wait area then went back.  Dr. Parks' assistant came in to speak with us first (and she was pretty, so this was a plus for Titus,,he loves him some pretty women,ha!).

After I shared with her how we were feeling and what has been going on, his history, etc., she left the room to go discuss things with the doc.

Next, Dr Parks and the assistant came back in and said that they do agree with us that what is going on with Titus *IS* breath holding spells by definition.  The only thing is how often they are occurring.  BHS should happen sporadically and not very often.  His are sometimes once a week, not good.  And there is the abnormal eeg that he had in the past.  He did agree that we should take him off of this medicine (Keppra) because he is taking sooo much (7ml a day!).  And that they Keppra is obviously not doing anything to prevent these spells.  We are beginning that process today and it should only take TWO WEEKS!!!!  Can you believe that people, two weeks!!!  We all agree that his condition is more of a behavioral thing that he should grow out of.  

However, since Titus did have an abnormal eeg (one time at the hospital after a hypoxic seizure), that we still needed to do another test to rule out any other thing going on.  To make sure that none of these spells are affecting his brain. Once our insurance has agreed to cover the cost of the procedure (pray!), then we will have an overnight hospital stay with Titus up in Augusta to have this test.  

We were so happy with what Dr Parks said!  He was such a sweet guy and really took the time to listen to us.  He was a tiny bit concerned with how little Titus is talking.  I told him that I also had my concerns with that but was waiting until after his 2nd birthday to see if we needed to do speech therapy with him.  I feel like he is already adding more words to his vocab daily.  He can talk, he is just often stubborn about it!

He also said that if we do have to medicate him that we may need to do a behavior medicine instead of the keppra.  Seth seems okay with this, however I really do not want him medicated unless it is absolutely necessary.  I really feel that as he learns more words and better ways to express himself that his frustration level will go down.  I mean he is a 22 month old boy!  Really, he doesn't even have huge fits or tantrums, he just passes all that and passes out!  His behavior is in no way terrible.  He is the hardest out of my kids, but I have seen waaaay worse behaved kiddos.

The only kinda weird thing that Dr Parks said was, "Why are you letting him cry so much that he passes out? Just keep him happy!!!!"  Seth thinks that he was kidding, but he didn't laugh? There was a bit of a language/cultural barrier so maybe I didn't "get the joke"? haha

At any rate we were so amazed that pretty much our prayers for this appt was answered in pretty much word for word!  Titus gets to come off the meds and we finally found someone that agrees that these are breath holding spells AND that we are able to do a different test besides the 3 day eeg/helmet!  Glory to God!

Titus did so well at the appt that we let him get a HUGE mickey doll (it was $1 from our favorite store up in Augusta).

On the way home we called/text family and friends to share the good news.  And we all rejoiced.  We pray that one day we will look back on all this and say, "Hey remember when Titus was on Keppra, that was a joke!" lol

My friend, Liz, has already had a vision of our family.  In her vision, our family was all sitting in the living room and Titus was about 7 years old and we were all happy as can be and things were much less stressful than they are now! Things were fine and dandy with Titus :) 

We pray, believe, and declare that this holds true!

Thanks so much to everyone that prayed and prayed for my buddy!  We really appreciate every one of those prayers so much!!!!