True to her word, Dr. Anderson returned my emails and calls. It turns out there are even specialties within epilepsy specialists! Dr. Anderson is in charge of the EEG monitoring unit. She had one of the surgeons look into Elisabeth's case. And, found her a new epileptologist!!
The surgeon gave me a call within two weeks. Dr, Curry was all business. His questions were direct and specific. 'Describe the seizures.' "Does she have issues with speech?" and so on. I answered as best I could. "yes, she could possibly be a candidate for surgery. I'll have my secretary call and make an appointment."
And, we got an appointment for late January!!! This was only 4 weeks after we met Dr. Anderson. What a relief!!
I left 2 hours early. Drove in circles through the medical center. Took 1 1/2 hours to figure out a 30 minute thing. I'm so directionally challenged.
We made it with 30 minutes to spare.
Dr. Curry came in, and asked the standard questions. Case history. Description of seizures. Checked neurological signs. Checked short term memory. Pulled up the MRI.
He instantly knew what he was looking at. "See this area here? This is her left temporal lobe. It should like a cinnamon roll. On the right side it does. But, here, it's different."
I could see it. Easily. The difference was night and day, when you knew where to look. Who knew!!
"She has a lesion on her left temporal lobe. This is probably causing the seizures. But, before performing surgery, we have to be sure. We take surgery on children very, very seriously. She will have to complete a series of tests. Then, a team of epilepsy Dr's, who meet very week, will look at her case, and discuss. If it's unanimous, we'll proceed with surgery. If they decide it's a good idea, surgery would have a very good chance of curing her condition."
He said we'd have to see our new epileptologist to look at the medications she's used so far. If two medications have really not worked with this type of epilepsy, then there's only a 4% chance of any medication working.
Only 4%???? How long would we have languished with a neurologist, trying this med and that??
My mind was reeling with all the details. It was going to be a long, busy semester, but my heart was also singing!!!! Did I hear him say 'chance of curing her condition???!!!"
It was like we were in a different universe. A parallel universe, where Dr's actually have answers, and can sort out her issues. It was like losing the weight of the world. Like I suddenly didn't have the whole burden of her care on my shoulders, when I didn't know what to do.
What a blessing!! I wrote back Dr. Anderson and thanked her again for the help. How wonderful that these brilliant people spent their entire careers sorting through epilepsy, and developing treatments. And that they are right here, in our city, and we actually met one of them.
"Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all we could ask or think." Ephesians 3:20
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