The Waiting Game

Gabrielle began having 6-8 seizures per day last week despite increases in her anticonvulsants. We met with her neurologist Monday to develop a game plan. In looking at her last post-operative MRI we can see that there is still tissue in the right frontal lobe that could be removed without causing major deficits. The problem with cortical dysplasia is the malformation can be very subtle and the margins not well defined. Therefore it is difficult to know with certainty which area may or may not be affected and thus resection is not always straightforward.

Yesterday Gabrielle had a sleep deprived EEG completed so we can assess where the abnormal electrical activity is originating. We are praying it is localized to the right because this would mean she is a surgical candidate. We should know more by next week. We continue to play around with her meds and they drew levels to see if she’s in therapeutic range. Unfortunately, cortical dysplasia is very pharmacologically resistant and often the only way to silence it is through surgical removal.

So we will wait for the results and make plans to get a second opinion.

Thanks for continuing to check in on Gabrielle!

Kelly