Sam gets Photos of His Brain

Our sweet Sam got his second EEG yesterday at Children's hospital. He needed to be sleep-deprived, and the neurologiest suggested that video games were a great way to keep a child awake and stimulated. Well, straight from the Doctor's mouth! Say no more.

So, lucky Sam got to stay up two hours past his bed time with his old pal, banjo tooie. Plus, get up at 5 am and enjoy a couple of hours of club penguin on the computer! believe me, he was not suffering. Nor was I, since Brian so graciously offered to do all the staying up with him and I got to go to bed.

Heading off to the city at 7 am, he got his third screen- his sister's gameboy. Ah, life is sweet.

An EEG is completely non-invasive. The child lays on an examination table, flat on his back, with a pillow underneath his head. Little blobs of jelly are applied to specific areas of his scalp, and then tiny cables (cameras) are placed there which then monitor the electrical activity of the brain. If the child seizes during the test, the increased activitiy will show on the print-out. (well, that's my limited understanding of an EEG. Any medical professionals reading this; don't hesitate to flesh that out) I hear that there is a joke amongst neurologists that goes like this:
*
"How do you get a child to stop seizing?"
"Give him an EEG".

I'm grateful for our medical system, as flawed as it may be. But I am a little bit doubtful of the usefulness of Sam's testing. (again, limited understanding) His seizure disorder is very mild, from what I understand. The seizures occur only in his sleep, and we have witnessed 5 in about two years. That's nothing like what some parents and children have to deal with, and these are not the type of seizures that will really affect his quality of life. He takes his pills without a fuss, we have a neurologist who has an amazing "bedside manner"; and what seizures Sam has had have been in his sleep. This is reassuring to me, because we don't (thus far) have to think of action plans for school, worry about his safety on a bike or walk, or be concerned that he won't get a driver licence at the typical time.

Sure, its sobering when your little one is diagnosed with something significant and you feel like his little world has lost its innocence. But in light of the scope of problems a kid could have, Sam's got it pretty good.

What other condition prescribes video games as a prerequisate for testing?!