Cabin Fever

As most of you know, Texas law keeps me from being allowed to drive until I've been seizure free for six months. I've already had three seizures this morning and it's not quite 9:30am. This is difficult for me, as I like to get out, be productive, see people, etc. So, B, Mom, and other friends have been trying to help me get out of the house a bit more. It's nice to see that life exists outside of the walls of our home.

My cousin's son has been in a baseball tournament this last week. His games have been within about 30 minutes of our house. So, although B would like to be in bed at 9p (he wakes up at 4:15 every morning), he has sacrificed that schedule to allow me to get out of the house a bit. We had a good time at the games this last week. My cousin's boyfriend has three kiddos. We got to meet them for the first time this weekend. When his youngest walked up, I saw those beautiful Asian eyes that just melt my heart, but her hair was so light and her skin so tan. She is from Kazakhstan. For those that aren't great at world geography (that would be Me!!), Kazakhstan is a country in Central Asia & Europe. It is bordered by Russia and China. Isn't she gorgeous? Here is picture of her:
She had fun using my camera during the game. Her daddy said I should hold on to the camera the entire time. So, she took a picture of B & me. I am up one row on the bleachers from B and looking up, trying to show her which button to push. So, though it's a hideous picture of me (of course, B is so handsome no matter what), here is the first pic of the new hairdo:


Also, one of our previous neighbors called me on Monday and said that she was taking her kids to the local nursing home to help wheel the residents down to lunch. She knew that I needed to get out of the house. So, I was able to go with her and her kiddos to love on the residents. It's amazing how quickly your eyes are opened to others' needs amidst a time of crying out to the Lord for answers. These residents were so thrilled to see young faces. It was such a joy and a moment to forget about my pity party of wanting a normal life. Here they are with one of the residents:

Finally, we are looking into other options and second and third and fourth opinions, with my seizures, before we make any decisions. However, in my last visit to the neurologist, he told us that he needs to change my diagnosis to "intractable seizures/refractory epilepsy" (not treatable with meds & might not ever go away). He originally thought that meds would do the trick and was quite shocked that they did not. We've played with many doses, meds, etc. So, the next two options he's offering me (other than playing with a million more meds, with much greater side effects) are surgical. One is a Vagus Nerve Stimulator. It is a little device they implant beneath the skin right under your collar bone. It's about half the size of a cell phone. It sends electrical impulses to the Vagus nerve all day long in hopes of correcting the electrical activity in the brain. It has about the same success rate as meds (70-80%), but often times works in patients that don't respond to meds. If you have a seizure while it is implanted, you run a little magnet over it and it's supposed to at least decrease the length of the seizure. He says I won't set off alarms at the airport!
; )

The other choice is a bit more frightening to me. It is a procedure where they remove your scalp, place electrodes directly on your brain to do brain mapping and get a much more accurate look at where your seizures are originating. Then, they take you back in for surgery, remove your scalp again, and remove that part of your brain (insert jokes about me not having my entire brain). I would probably have to shave my head for that one (B says he will shave his, too, if I have to do that!!). Wonder if we could get Mom to shave her head, as well!! For those of you that don't have a weak stomach, here is the link for a live version of the surgery done at Memorial Hermann in Houston:

Resective Surgery for Refractory Epilepsy

You just click on the link for the "live surgery." This patient's seizures are fairly similar to mine as mine are in the Left Temporal Lobe, as well. They believe mine start a bit deeper than the temporal lobe, but are unable to know for sure without a surgery such as this. It is a very long video. However, at the very beginning they show a quick look at the surgery and then the docs begin talking about it. If you like stuff like this, you can fast forward to about the seven and a half minute mark to actually see the beginning of the surgical part. Again, this is not for those with a weak stomach. Consider yourself warned!!!!

If you made it this far in the post, thanks for caring so much about the crazy details in our life and thank you all for your heartfelt prayers to our Lord and Savior that knows what is going on, despite us being so confused.