Of course everything still seemed like a bad dream at this point. And, since they wake you up every couple of hours in the hospital, Yoshie and I became increasingly sleep deprived. So, that whole first week just seems like a blur.
John had a 30 minute EEG during our 2nd day at the hospital. For those that don't know, this is where they stick a bunch of wires on your head and monitor the brain activity. John was a zombie from the meds still, so he slept through this. Yoshie was actually holding him, and they wanted us to wake him for part of it, but he was just too tired. As the technician started watching the lines jumping across the screen, you could tell something was wrong. I was watching it as well, and it looked wildly erratic, but I didn't know what an EEG should look like so it didn't really alarm me. I asked the technician how it looked and she said she couldn't comment on it, and that the neurologist would be in to talk about it. It's one of those cases where she probably would have told us, had it looked normal.
The neurologist came to talk to Yoshie and I later in the day. The first thing she said, after introducing herself, was "I'm very worried about your son." She only talked to us for a few minutes, but explained how John had constant, significant abnormalities in his EEG. She made it clear that this was a serious issue, and she looked genuinely saddened to have to report this to us. She said she was determined to find out what the cause was. She ordered a CT scan, an MRI, and a "24 hour" video EEG.
John had quit throwing up by this point, but was still lethargic. Yoshie had to carry him around on her back almost the entire day. He was still having a series of small seizures almost hourly.
John had his CT scan later that day. It's a terrible feeling to have to make your 1yr old go through all these tests that I've never even had to have. He slept right through it, so he didn't need any anesthesia. Yoshie stayed in the room with him, and I went to the control room and watched the pictures come through. I asked the technician there if she could see any abnormalities, and she again said she couldn't comment. That scared me.
I think we got the results later that day - all normal. That was a big relief, but we still had the more precise MRI the following day.
