Shhhh. Don't Tell.

The original plan was to take Carly along for my 20ish week ultrasound so she could find out the sex at the same time we did. Then I began to panic. All I could picture was finding out some bad news and her being there. So Kenneth and I went alone for today's ultrasound and Carly will go to the next one now that we know the baby is doing fine. So if you know us in real life, please don't tell her the sex of the baby until she can see it for her own eyes. What is the sex, you ask? We are having a boy! There is no doubt and he was not shy about showing off his junk. His first name will be Gabriel and he will go by Gabe. His middle name is either Charles (Kenneth's middle name) or Thomas (Kenneth's dad's name). That decision is up to Kenneth and he is not sure what he wants yet. So far everything looks good with Gabe and he is growing right on track. His legs are a week ahead which is normal for our kids- they are all legs! He is a hefty 12 ounces at this time which is great! Dr C. is concerned about my health though. Clearly, nothing is ever simple with us. He is concerned about my heart and is sending me to a cardiologist to evaluate how my heart is functioning. He is concerned I may have some sort of cardiomyopathy. There is a list or reasons why he suspects this but I will not go into it. I am believing everything is OK and will continue to believe that until I hear differently. If something is wrong it is yet another gift from my dear friend preeclampsia.

I actually already got a call from the neurologist's office this morning. I will tell you what I know and what I understand but keep in mind this has been translated from Dr. Malik's report to Dr. Hernandez's nurse to me and I have very little understanding of this whole brain/seizure thing. I will have a much more thorough explanation after our appointment with Dr. Hernandez on the 24th. Anna had seizure activity during the EEG but it was not at night, it was during the day (see, I really don't know much about this stuff). This does not mean she ahs not had them at night, she may have, but on the EEG they were all while she was awake. Anna's seizure activity originated from the occipital lobe, not the temporal lobe where her cysts are located (apparently she has bilateral cysts, not just one as I previously thought and they are on both sides of her hippocampus which is in the temporal lobe (I think)). The type of spike/wave pattern she had is most commonly seen with the generalized epilepsy syndromes. This means that both hemispheres of the brain are affected from the start of the seizure. These types of seizures generally manifest as tonic/clonic, myoclonic, absence, and atonic. Confused yet? Yeah, me too. For now we are leaving her medications alone and we will see how things go and address the plan at her next appointment. She has had a really good past few days and I am praying this will be the trend. I am saddened and yet relieved by the EEG results. I am saddened because the seizures are now confirmed and relieved because now we know more about them.

So that is today in a nutshell. And all of this prior to noon...