Meet my dad:
Do you know what he is? A surviver.
A surviver of a malignant brain tumor (I'll do a post about that soon) and a horrible car accident that broke his neck. I swear the man has 40 lives.
Recently, some things have been happening with his brain. He started having these weird... "episodes". We had no idea what they were. He would be sitting there doing his thing when all of the sudden he would stop, get this look of pure terror/a look of wanting to cry on his face, then he would leave the room. At first we all thought that it was maybe some PTSD or something related to his dad's death. Maybe some sort of panic attack? We didn't know.
We discovered that he was having seizures. Not the kind that you automatically think of when you hear the word "seizure". A different kind.
His doctor had him do an EEG test to monitor his brain activity when these episodes would happen. He had to have a bunch of wires stuck to his head for 5 days. He wore a black bandana and honestly looked like a pirate! He ended up having 3 episodes (possibly 4) while doing the EEG.
We were all so anxious to hear the results of the test. However, after the doctors had examined the results, they didn't see any seizure activity. None. Nothing showed up when he would have an episode. Like... what?
His doctor still decided to try some anti-seizure medication. The first medication they tried was called Levetiracetam (yeah, I can't pronounce it either). Not only did he still have these episodes, but he started going downhill cognitively. He was moving slower, not remembering things, seemed more depressed, didn't have great balance, and had loss of bladder control.
We noticed that he went really downhill on week 4 of the medication, which is when it was supposed to fully be in his system helping. My mom called the doctor and they decided to change medications. The next one they tried was called Zonisamide. He didn't improve. He just kept getting worse.
They took him off the medication and decided to order an MRI. I had wondered why the heck they didn't do an MRI in the first place, but it is because he had had one about a year before this and everything looked fine.
The result of the MRI was this: he has a subdural hematoma. He has blood under his skull and outside of his brain. This usually happens when you bump your head really hard, and is more common in older people (my dad is only 58). What's interesting is that the blood is dried blood.
We honestly don't know much more. The soonest he can get into the neurosurgeon is still another month. I guess they don't consider this an emergency..... I mean, these episodes started around the time my grandpa passed away (it's been a year and a half now). But I can't think of a time that long ago that he hit his head.
I'm anxious to see what the neurosurgeon says. I want more answers. I want them now. How blood affecting someone's brain functionality isn't an emergency doesn't make sense to me. But okay.
As soon as we get more info, I will be updating this post. In the meantime, any prayers, positive vibes, healing energy sent this way would be greatly appreciated.
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