OK, so we are off to Spain next Saturday, and we are all very impatient about that.
However, I have a hurdle to overcome a couple of days before we go. I’m being very brave about it, as is my want, but my Mama is a little nervous (eyes rolled to ceiling in despair).
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, hmmm sounds cool doesn’t it! or RMI as we call it here at the Bernard Bunch cos that’s what its called in French. I have to have one next Wednesday.
And because I might find the MRI tunnel and all the restraints frightening and have difficulty keeping still for the 45-60 minutes that it takes to get the best brain pictures, I’m getting a general anaesthesia. Mama is resigned, but not overjoyed, about this.
West Syndrome has been living with me since I was born. Its a form of epilepsy which only occurs in the 0-2yr old age bracket. I struck lucky. My parents caught on to what was going on pretty early, and I was quick to get the right medication. The really lucky part is that the medication immediately got rid of it. No more seizures. Ever. Not all kids get this lucky, and I thank that lucky star which continues to dangle over my head for giving me that extra boost. Infantile spasms can do quite a lot of damage to a developing brain – and my brain is quite delicate enough as it is, thank you very much! Sabril stopped the seizures immediately, when I was 8 months old. So now that I have hit the ‘I’m two years old” milestone, I have to have this RMI MRI thingie to look for scars, malformations, cysts or tumours which might have been created by those initial seizures. 
At the end of the day on Wednesday, I will know one of the two following possible things :
Either
· The epilepsy has gone forever (please dangling lucky star, make that the outcome for next Wednesday ok?)
Or
· The infantile spasms have turned into something else and I have to continue taking preventive medication and succumb to their side effects (destroyed peripheral vision - hence my magnificent spectacles permanently perched on my delicate little nose).
