Dr Visit Today

The visit today ended up producing more questions than answers.

We started off with an MRI and then headed to the Neurosurgery clinic to find out the results. The doctor at the clinic was a resident that had worked with Randy while he was in the hospital ~ he was on his team of doctors. He said there appeared to be a small stroke that showed on the MRI. At first, he was talking as though that would be the reason Randy was weak on the left side. We weren't told of any stroke while he in Harborview and when he went back to check the MRI results from June, he said there were no documentations of anything then. I don't know when it could have happened. It is possible that the episode on September the 5th was a stroke, but the doctor in the ER said he didn't think it was based on the blood work and the Cat Scan done that night. The Resident today advised us to keep the appointment we have with the Neurology clinic with Harborview to get more answers. He was there on a purely surgical basis and this was outside his realm of expertise.

We also asked about the diagnosis from the Neurologist down here regarding the seizure. The answer we got back was that, again, it wasn't in his field of expertise. He did say that he didn't see any harm in waiting on taking the medication until we had our appointment with the other clinic, which is on October 2nd, since we don't know if it really was a seizure or not and he hasn't had any episodes since that time.

He did say that, from a Neruo Surgical standpoint, he was very happy with the recovery Randy has made. He thinks that where we are at right now is now where we are going to end up, meaning that he believes Randy will continue to get better. He said that Randy does not need to be seen by the surgery team anymore because everything on that end has healed up fine. There is some other clinic, though, that he recommended ~ it was the Traumatic Brain Injury one that can help deal with other "non neurological" issues such as change in personality and such, which we haven't really seen, but he recommended that we give it a try to see if there is anything they can help us out with.

So, it was a good day in that the Doctor is pleased with the recovery so far, but it was also a frustrating day in that we found out about a stroke and have no answers on that or the seizures.

So that is where we are at right now.