A Big Week - day 2

It has felt like a loooonnnnggg day!

We got up, packed up and came into Birmingham. We had a couple of hours to kill and Immi still had some Christmas (yes, Christmas!) vouchers to spend so we had a trip to The Bull Ring and to Claire's accessories. Immi gets overwhelmed in big shopping centres at the best of times, I think it is something to do with the noise and lights and today was no exception.  It took us 45 mins to get past the first shop, firstly because as she entered it (The Entertainer) she went into a seizure and we had to go and change. When we finally got back in there she spent another half an hour wandering aimlessly around the entertainer, not really looking at anything, but not willing to move on either.
Eventually we were able to move on and in Claire's she bought some headbands as she will want something to cover her head.

Then we moved onto the hospital.  When we arrived at the ward at 2pm as requested we were asked to sit near the ward door as they were discharging some other patients.  Immi was called for a blood test to show she has no infection before op. We went down to outpatients for this, only to find the things had already been sent to the ward, so we went back up! Immi eventually allowed her blood to be drawn although she wasn't keen until I explained we weren't doing the op today.  I think she thought it was the start of the procedure. All done we continued to wait. Then Immi was called for another blood test - to determine blood type this time. Not sure why they had to do two different tests - GMC policy apparently. (Any medics out there feel free to enlighten me as to why patients have to go through two separate procedures! Seems unnecessary!) Then the wait again!

Then the big cheese walked in.  The man whose hands will be responsible for our daughter's fate in a way none other will ever do - I do hope he carries that responsibility heavily!  It was a bit of a stunning meeting.  They have decided to place 16 electrodes into Immis brain.  13 on the left into the central and frontal lobes and 3 in the right frontal lobe. She will spend about 5 hours under general anaesthetic. Firstly they will do another MRI, then place the frame, then a CT scan and match the two up.  Then they place the electrodes and then another scan to check placement, and finally she will be woken.  They will then monitor her seizures at full meds and drop them out as and when they need to.  If they find a specific place they feel they are eminating from then they can heat up the electrode and temporarily kill of some cells around that area and see if it slows seizure activity.  This will give them an idea of what they can do as a permanent fix.
Finally after 7 days they will do another short op to remove the electrodes, then she will stay for another day or do before returning home.  He said he will keep us an extra day as we live so far away.
Then of course we had to sign off. We were told that there is a risk of clots, small or big, a small risk of meningitis as they are going into the brain and a small risk of life......blooming heck. I really hope this is worth it. Immi is about to go through a seriously horrible week that has the potential to bring about an amazingly good change but also has a small chance of bringing about no change or making things worse.  If you are a praying person please pray this brings about an amazingly good change!