It's beginning to look a lot like an unusual Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve. We’ve been at UCLA Med Center since Saturday when Susan was admitted through ER for moderate seizures that increased in frequency, even with higher doses of her anti-seizure drug at home. Since seizures can be common with brain tumor patients, Keppra is prescribed to prevent them. Susan’s taken it daily since 2007 without event until now. In my prior blog post, I explain how this seizure swarm started.

Susan’s battery of tests over the past 48 hours included blood and urine for infection, MRI for tumor, EKG for heart, and EEG for brain activity. The MRI revealed no great changes such as increased tumor, swelling, or fluid.

Last night’s 20-minute EEG recorded two seizures. The first had the noticeable symptoms of Susan straining her head and eyes to the right while unresponsive. As usual, it lasted about a minute with no convulsions or loss of consciousness. The second was visible only on the spectrograph of brain waves. With that, the neurology team thought she might need a continuous EEG under observation in ICU to track the brain-wave-only events.

But today, the combination of Keppra and another drug called Vimpat seem to be working. Susan’s last noticeable seizure was around 6am. The plan now is to forego another EEG and see whether the meds are indeed effective over time. If so, she’ll go home with a new anti-seizure cocktail – and we’ll add seizures to her long list of brain tumor experiences.

Susan is more tired and confused than usual and has been a bit contrary, sometimes wanting to peel off her EKG wires or wanting to get out of bed and go somewhere. Mild rebellion doesn’t come naturally for a gracious soul like Susan. But such disorientation is the stuff of brain tumor world. Thankfully, that fog looks to be lifting. Most of the time, lucid moments and her upbeat attitude prevail.

It appears the medical team’s decision to test Keppra + Vimpat meds means we’ve turned the corner from the long discovery phase toward treatment and discharge, whenever that is. I hope to see her neuro-oncologist before we leave since we were scheduled for a two-month checkup this Wednesday anyway. We’ve already done the MRI. I expect the neuro-oncology visit will inform us with the big picture. 

For now, we wait. Why not? It’s still Advent today, a time of waiting. We thank God for his love and faithfulness in all things, and for his peace at Christmas time.