Hunter had to have an ambulatory EEG. That means he does the test at home for several days. The test was ordered as a 72-hour test with the option to extend 24 hours if we felt like we wanted to capture more data.
This test was done to see what is going on with Hunter during a breath holding episode. Hunter will hold his breath and often pass out. Sometimes when he passes out he has a period of time (about 30-60 seconds) that he has a goofy-dazed-but-happy look on his face; sometime accompanied by wierd face movements. His Neurologist saw what Hunter was doing when she watched an episode that I recorded. She ordered the test to see if he was experiencing seizure activity while in the goofy-dazed-but-happy state.
The test came back normal. He held his breath a couple of times but caught it before passing out. We never did capture the goofy-dazed-but-happy period because he didnt have one. We left the test running for 96+ hours. I worried about this happening. But I also realized that we prayed that if we were to get any information from the test then we would. I have faith that we got the information we were supposed to get and that was a normal test. So for now, we are satisfied.
The first thing they did was measure his head and map out where the electrodes would go.
He had to lay on the bed to get the electrodes on his head where the blue marks were mapped out.
I had to hold his arms at his sides and hold his legs still so that the nurse could get the electroded glued on in the correct spot. We had the fan going so that Hunter would not sweat the electrodes off while he was crying. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get the 21 electrodes all glued in spot. Thank goodness for Grandma Clark coming out to help. She handed the nurse the next color of wire and a gauze pad (the gauze pad went over the electrode to glue the electrode in place) and that really helped speed things up.
He wore this little dew-rag on his head to protect the electrodes. All the wires were tied up in the back and they came down his back like a long ponytail to his backpack. The poor little guy finally fell asleep when we finished up.
Here he is in his dew-rag, his wire ponytail and his backpack. He was so cute.
Fisher and Justin were so great to stay inside and play since Hunter needed to stay inside to play. He had to be careful going outside so he didn't sweat.
He was so tolerant of the backpack. He never fussed to have it on his back and didnt see too bothered by it. He did get quite bothered by the patch they put on his chest to monitor his heartrate. He ripped it off a couple times.
He was so cute when he would stand up and cruise with his little backpack.
This is what it looked like under the dew-rag. Every morning and night we had to fill up each electrode with conducting cream to keep the test reading. This was not fun at all for Hunter or for Mom and Dad.
What a dude.... he was so happy when I gave in and took him outside for a little swing. He had his backpack on his lap and did awesome.
This is a picture of Hunter right before the electrodes, wires and backpack was removed.
Here he right before the nurse started taking off the electrodes. We put a movie on to distract him. In order to get the glue off we had to use acetone (aka fingernail polish remover) to get it off.
Here he is about 1/2 way free.
The first thing he did once he was a free man again was stand on his head in true Hunter fashion.
Hunter is a trooper!
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