Sleep Deprived Brain Waves
I've taken the day off due to Cameron having an EEG this morning at the hospital. He's been having some strange eye 'thing' going on for a few years now (I KNOW..a few YEARS!) and although he'd mentioned it occasionally, he'd never really given me any great detail and I figured it was due to malnutrition or whatever, cos I can be such a bad mummy when it comes to providing nutritional sustinance for my offspring.
The last thing I wanted to do was hear the pediatrician tell me it was my fault he was like that. So I did nothing about it. Ok, that's not the real reason, I guess I put it down to a variety of things, none of which I can think of right now, but they seemed justified at the time. It wasn't until he said earlier this year "I used to think that maybe everybody had those black clouds flashing across their eyes every other day or so..until I asked some of my mates at school". I was like "EH?!". That's when we went into a lot more detail about what was happening, what he was feeling and how often etc.
Anyway, after a couple of appointments with the doctor, and then the hospital, today he went in for the EEG. He lay down on the bed while she stuck electrodes to his head and heart with something akin to concrete glue. I know what this stuff's like, I've had a couple of EEGs myself...the stuff dries like porridge and pulling them off afterwards can hurt like a son of a btich. But then he's got less hair than me, so maybe it didn't pull so much.
This was a sleep deprived EEG, which basically means, he can have very little sleep (up to 5 hours) the night before. I told him last night, if there was any night he was allowed to stay up all night, this was the time to do it. I also mentioned this might be a good time for him to go for a trek down the road for a hubcap. I know I've harped on and off about it to him over the past few days, but truth be told, if he tried that lark, I woulda kicked his arse good and proper and he knows it. lol
Apparently they can detect more if you're sleepy. I stayed up as long as I could with him...then went to bed after midnight. He got to sleep at 3am, woke up at 5am....came and poked me awake at 7am. She stuck 35 electrodes on his head. Once they were all in place, I glanced at the computer. "Oh no! The screen is blank, you have no brain Cameron!". He rolled his eyes so far back in his head at that remark, I thought they'd never come back down.
Me: "I wish I'd brought my camera with me."
Cameron: "Why?"
Me: "Because then I could take a picture of all those colourful wires stuck to your head...not to mention that girly hair tie that's holding them altogether."
Cameron *snort* "Yeah right, I'm sure I'd really appreciate THAT."
Me: "Yeah, my bloggy friends would too I reckon."
His eyes disappeared again.
I found it quite interesting actually. I got to sit there watching his brain waves bouncing up and down on the computer screen while the technician told him to open and close his eyes etc. She then asked him to start hyperventilating for about 3 minutes, until he was weazing to the point of me thinking "why the hell didn't I think to bring his ventolin with us?". Then he got to lie completely still and do nothing for 20 minutes while she watched the brain waves moving across the screen. When she said it was time to start the strobe light going, I vacated the room. I have partial left-brain(?) epilepsy seizures myself, so strobe lighting is a problem for me. I was outta there.
We'll be notified by mail once the report is done. God knows how long that will take, but considering how long it had taken us to get to this point, a couple more weeks won't matter will it?
We got home to find Ryan in exactly the same position we'd left him earlier...sound asleep and oblivious to the fact he'd been alone in the house for a couple of hours. This is a good thing, Lord only knows what he would've done with all that freedom.
Trust me, when your 14 year old son comes home one day and asks..."Mum? When's the next time I'll be alone in the house? Like, when you're working and Cameron's working?"...after spending a couple of hours at the park with his girlfriend...your mind goes into Operation Alert Mode.
I know my brain waves must've gone from flat lining on the screen to jumping right off the scale after processing THAT question.
The last thing I wanted to do was hear the pediatrician tell me it was my fault he was like that. So I did nothing about it. Ok, that's not the real reason, I guess I put it down to a variety of things, none of which I can think of right now, but they seemed justified at the time. It wasn't until he said earlier this year "I used to think that maybe everybody had those black clouds flashing across their eyes every other day or so..until I asked some of my mates at school". I was like "EH?!". That's when we went into a lot more detail about what was happening, what he was feeling and how often etc.
Anyway, after a couple of appointments with the doctor, and then the hospital, today he went in for the EEG. He lay down on the bed while she stuck electrodes to his head and heart with something akin to concrete glue. I know what this stuff's like, I've had a couple of EEGs myself...the stuff dries like porridge and pulling them off afterwards can hurt like a son of a btich. But then he's got less hair than me, so maybe it didn't pull so much.
This was a sleep deprived EEG, which basically means, he can have very little sleep (up to 5 hours) the night before. I told him last night, if there was any night he was allowed to stay up all night, this was the time to do it. I also mentioned this might be a good time for him to go for a trek down the road for a hubcap. I know I've harped on and off about it to him over the past few days, but truth be told, if he tried that lark, I woulda kicked his arse good and proper and he knows it. lol
Apparently they can detect more if you're sleepy. I stayed up as long as I could with him...then went to bed after midnight. He got to sleep at 3am, woke up at 5am....came and poked me awake at 7am. She stuck 35 electrodes on his head. Once they were all in place, I glanced at the computer. "Oh no! The screen is blank, you have no brain Cameron!". He rolled his eyes so far back in his head at that remark, I thought they'd never come back down.
Me: "I wish I'd brought my camera with me."
Cameron: "Why?"
Me: "Because then I could take a picture of all those colourful wires stuck to your head...not to mention that girly hair tie that's holding them altogether."
Cameron *snort* "Yeah right, I'm sure I'd really appreciate THAT."
Me: "Yeah, my bloggy friends would too I reckon."
His eyes disappeared again.
I found it quite interesting actually. I got to sit there watching his brain waves bouncing up and down on the computer screen while the technician told him to open and close his eyes etc. She then asked him to start hyperventilating for about 3 minutes, until he was weazing to the point of me thinking "why the hell didn't I think to bring his ventolin with us?". Then he got to lie completely still and do nothing for 20 minutes while she watched the brain waves moving across the screen. When she said it was time to start the strobe light going, I vacated the room. I have partial left-brain(?) epilepsy seizures myself, so strobe lighting is a problem for me. I was outta there.
We'll be notified by mail once the report is done. God knows how long that will take, but considering how long it had taken us to get to this point, a couple more weeks won't matter will it?
We got home to find Ryan in exactly the same position we'd left him earlier...sound asleep and oblivious to the fact he'd been alone in the house for a couple of hours. This is a good thing, Lord only knows what he would've done with all that freedom.
Trust me, when your 14 year old son comes home one day and asks..."Mum? When's the next time I'll be alone in the house? Like, when you're working and Cameron's working?"...after spending a couple of hours at the park with his girlfriend...your mind goes into Operation Alert Mode.
I know my brain waves must've gone from flat lining on the screen to jumping right off the scale after processing THAT question.
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