Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Day 1 EMU


Day 1: July 24th, 2018 Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, Barnes Hospital

We arrived in our room at 8:30am this morning and the hooking up of his EEG began. We settled in and eventually met the attending Neurologist to find out the plan for the next few days.  Since Barnes is a training hospital, most doctors have Residents and Fellows that accompany them to learn alongside and offer input. We gave our history to them both as well as the nurse practioner (you repeat it a lot, as new nurses and doctors cycle through). We have had two lovely nurses today, who have been attentive and compassionate.
You would think that arriving for a 7 day stay where they induce seizures is bad enough. Ours has already been a little more interesting. To back up, yesterday we spent the morning in the ER as Greg had chest pains and an elevated heart rate. The tests (EKG, blood work and CT scan of the chest) where inconclusive and we went home. These symptoms were concerning at they were the ones that eventually put Greg in the hospital back in February 2017 when he was diagnosed with his Lung Cancer.  (We have a follow up with our oncologist next week after we are out of the EMU, and both his oncologist and the attending ER Dr, said to go ahead with the EMU today.) Since being admitted today his chest pain has continued and he has started to run a mild temperature, battling a fever. No one has any idea why these random symptoms are occurring. We have our plan to go ahead to start decreasing his anti-seizure medicine until a seizure is produced. I don’t know how these other symptoms come into play. What I do know is we are in very capable hands. The neuro team and staff are the best around, top ranked in the country. His oncologist is nearby, and any other medical needs that arise could be taken care of as well. Please continue to pray for the doctors, as well as Greg’s body, that we can get answers and move forward to a stable life, or miraculous healing!

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