Diagnosis

Children's Hospital held up their end of the bargain.  They had the EEG read and the report delivered to my pediatrician by the end of the day.  He called me at about 6pm on Tuesday night with the good news.  The EEG was completely normal.

Yesterday, Maggie had her neurology appointment.  I was a bit worried because I knew we were meeting with a resident.  As it turns out, it was a resident and a medical student - neither of whom seemed to know what they were doing.  They asked a few questions, but then I just went into the whole story.  I thought that would be quicker.  They examined her and watched her walk up and down the hall.  After about 30-40 minutes, they left to go consult with the attending neurologist.  Luckily, he came back with them.  He went over everything I had already told the other two (and I wanted to be sure to tell my story again since I didn't now how much or how well they had relayed what I said).  He did some tests - like stacking blocks and some other developmental tests.  Then he also watched her walk.

We talked a lot about seizures.  He said it's possible that her strange eye movements are seizures.  However, because she's not tired afterward and because her EEG does not show any signs of ongoing seizures, it's unlikely.  Good news.  He noted she has some weakness on her left side.  She is not up to par developmentally.  She was not able to stack the four blocks.  In fairness, she has never played with blocks that small, and when you have two sisters you tend to hold on to things instead of stacking them.

His final diagnosis was partially shocking and partially - I told you so.  I already diagnosed her over a year ago.  And, I was right.

The diagnosis - mild cerebral palsy.  He said it's unlikely that it's an inner-ear (vestibular) issue.  However, it is difficult to tell the difference (at this age) between an inner ear and a cerebellum issue.  He believes though that it's CP - very mild.

At this point there isn't any follow up unless something scary - like a seizure - happens.  But he does want her to continue with physical therapy and speech therapy.

It's nice to finally have a diagnosis.  I've known all along that was her problem.  However, I was concerned that she might be having seizures.  Even though there was increased white matter showing on her MRI, he said it's normal and the EEG was normal.  So, she does have normal brain development.  That is definitely good news.

I'll end with some photos Robin took on Tuesday afternoon.  Maggie still has residual "goop" in her hair from the EEG.