Davida's Story: EEG and Neurologist appointment

The last two weeks have been a bit crazy with Davida's regular PT and OT appointments as well as an EEG and appointment with the neurologist. Thankfully Marcus is better at retaining TONS of information and asking good questions after disrupting news. He wrote up this summary (thanks Marcus!):

Last week Davida went in for an EEG because she stares off at times into the distance and partly because seizures are common for kids with CP. Davida had to be sleep deprived the night before so she was kept up late and woken up at 4!

Who's really being sleep deprived?!

At the appointment they needed her to sleep while being hooked up to dozens of probes on her head. It took a while but she finally did fall asleep!

Probes on and ready to go!

After her "nap"

This week we met with the neurologist Dr Goins to go over the results. We were told by her physical therapist that Dr Goins is very smart but tells it like it is which we appreciate but also made her parents a little nervous. Dr Goins said Davida's EEG was slightly abnormal. It showed Davida has a brain injury and was questionable about any seizures. He wants more observation from us but was unconvinced at this point she was having them. Despite being tired from a short early nap Davida was alert and happy.

Dr Goins also described his present theory about the cause being a blood clot from the placenta going to her arm and arteries supplying each side of her brain near the end of pregnancy . We asked about expectations for Davida and he said typically with this injury you can expect significant mental and physical disabilities however Davida shows a lot of atypical mental signs such as being very social and trying to communicate. She also shows a lot of atypical physical signs such as using her arm to support herself from falling when sitting, some hand eye coordination and strong trunk control.
Dr Goins ended the visit wanting some blood tests for clotting and a follow up appointment in five weeks. In the meantime, we will need to track the length of Davida's staring spells and note things like if her head is facing the same way each time. On his way out Dr Goins said Davida was "by far the cutest thing he'd seen all day" :-)

On a side note, Marcus has been taking Davida to a swim class every Saturday. Davida LOVES water and is really enjoying swimming!