May 10 Memories: Last one up is a rotten EEG

 No, I did not spell egg wrong.  The last one up is a rotten EEG.

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is the test that measures brain activity that can tell information about seizures.  Audrey had many EEGs in last 4 years.

Some were at Central DuPage Hospital, some were at Mercy, some were at UW Children's, some were at Children's Wisconsin, and some were at home. I'm not sure if this accurate, but I counted 23 EEGs from 1 hour to 72 hours in length.

EEG became a part of our family vocabulary.  Instead of "last one up is a rotten egg, it was last one up is a rotten EEG"

Her first EEG was June 8/2018.  I will be honest, I didn't know what an EEG was.  But really quickly, Audrey knew what they were.  Audrey was in pretty good spirits during that visit, but she remembered that the women in the dark blue scrubs put all those cords on her head.  She would only get bigger and stronger over the next 4 years.
This is a weird memory to post because EEGs were hard. Sometimes, we had them planned for months, and multiple times, they were not planned and were emergency in nature. One time when I was not there, the hospital EEG techs suggested to Mandy that they could try to hook the leads up in the EEG room on their own, without Mandy in the room. Mandy shared that we've done quite a few at this point and we kind of know what works best for Audrey- it can be pretty challenging to place them on her. They insisted. After a few minutes had passed in the EEG room with Audrey and the techs, Grandma Brenda said "Do you think Audrey's ok in there?" Mandy's response- "I'm sure Audrey's fine, but I'm not sure the techs will be ok." (There's a good chance someone was getting bit or scratched.) After another minute, they came back out and asked for Mandy to go ahead and join them in the EEG room.
Many times, Audrey did not make it better as she was a pretty strong kid. Eventually, she did get more subdued and more open to EEG techs doing their job. Mandy had a way of doing it where she pretended to "do Audrey's hair" while they were placing the leads, to distract Audrey and get her to cooperate with the procedure. We also got really good at taping up the headband and keeping everything hooked up with the wires and a backpack.
We knew to take a button-down shirt or clothes that didn't require going overhead and to bring baby shampoo and combs to get the glue out of her hair. Anyone who's spent time in a hospital for a while probably also gets familiar with the "this isn't our first rodeo" thing.

Feb 4 2021

Feb 12 2021
March 3 2021

The EEG is not the most invasive test, and is limited in the way that it detects seizures, but unfortunately became a norm for Audrey. Some times it took us away from Hannah for a time, and overall, its not a super positive as it comes to memories. But Audrey was so strong, and so resilient. She put up with A LOT. She was and is a fighter. One thing that an EEG didn't objectively report was that Audrey is the strongest kid I know. EEG was a part of life for Audrey, and now in the Cismesia family dictionary.

Last one up is a rotten EEG

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