Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off To Hospital We Go

Don't panic it's not a bad thing. Well, it sort of is but it isn't. Ah that doesn't make sense does it? Let me explain ... Brodie has to have three scans done before he is admitted to hospital next week for a video monitoring study of his Epilepsy.

He's having an MRI, a SPECT scan and a PET scan. I'm not exactly sure what the last two are but they are all being done to check his brain. I guess they want a before and after look at his brain after the video monitoring is complete.

Next week when Brodie is admitted to hospital for the video monitoring they will be taking him off his epilepsy medication in the hopes of bringing on his seizures. He needs to have a support person with him 24/7. The support person will need to call the nurse if/when Brodie has a seizure and the nurse will inject him with a dye which will show which area of the brain is affected by his seizures.

This is all being done in the hope that surgery is an option in the future especially if the medication doesn't work as well as it should. Brodie is very keen to be rid of these seizures and wants the operation if he can. In his words "I want my life back!" plus he wants to be able to continue to learn to drive. Something he is not allowed to do because his seizures aren't controlled.

Sadly I am unable to be with him the whole time. Luckily we have volunteers and paid helpers (we need so use some of his DHS disability funding to help us out with that) but we only have the roster filled for the first week *sigh* I don't know what we will be doing for the second week. It's stressing me out big time.

So tonight, Brodz and I will drive the two hours from home to reach the hospital. He has his MRI around 6:45 pm. We shall be staying at the medi-hotel overnight then he has the remaining two scans tomorrow; one at 11 am and the other at 1 pm. Poor thing has to fast for 6 hours for the second scan. He's not very good at fasting. He will need to have breakfast early or he will miss out altogether.

Seriously though. As I mentioned all of this stuff is stressing me out. The neurologist has no idea how much stress he has caused our family with this video monitoring. It's so difficult to do this when you don't have family living in this state. My family, who I know would help out, live 800 kms away. I can't expect them to come over and stay with Brodie at the hospital when I can't. I feel like such a bad Mum being unable to stay with him the whole time but I am Mark's carer and I have to take Angus to an ENT specialist during the first week of Brodie's hospital stay. I need to be home for them as well.

I just want April to be over.