Friday, January 6th

Brandon spent the entire evening monitored by an EEG and being videotaped.  From what I saw of the video, it was a real nail biter : )  Dr. R came in to visit us first thing this morning.  He reiterated to us that he does not feel that Brandon has had a Stroke. From his extensive experience of actually operating on the human brain, he does not feel that Brandon displays the symptoms of a classic stroke victim.  The current theory of Brandon’s prognosis is that the tumor in his brain leaked to the surrounding tissues.  This type of chemical meningitis is causing him to have high fevers, difficulty breathing, fluctuating blood pressure, and a lack of response.  The results of Thursday's angiogram showed that the vessels surrounding his brain are working properly.  This is fantastic news!  Dr. R mentioned cases in which patients have woken after months with this type of trauma and urged us to wait patiently. Dr. R is anxious to see the results of the MRI of his entire brain and spine that Brandon is going to have later today.  We felt comforted with Dr. R’s prognosis when he left today.

Dr.  C showed up a little later in the morning and sat down to review the EEG that had been running through the night.  He pointed out the patterns of brain activity and some areas of synchronization which likely means some random minor seizure activity.  This type of seizure can be expected with this type of brain trauma. He verified with the nurses that Brandon is on Dilantin to treat the seizures and recommended that we continue running the EEG until Brandon was taken for his MRI.  During the day Brandon’s fever continued to fluctuate and his breathing and blood pressure were very erratic.  They were able to get his fever under control with the help of a cooling blanket.  His scan was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. but he did not actually go until 6:30 p.m.   The scan was scheduled to take approximately 4 hours so we do not anticipate any results until Saturday. 

We hope that tomorrow will bring good news from his MRI and improvement in his fevers and breathing.