If It Were My Nephew...

Since I took Liam into the ER over the weekend we were able to schedule an appointment with our original neurologist for this week.   I remember feeling very comfortable with this doctor in the hospital and was pleased to see the comfort level remained the same in the outpatient office.  (Also - as a side note to any ISU grads - his brother-in-law is Skip Schaeffer from the Redbird's basketball team between 1996-1999.)

Because of the funny feeling Liam was having over the weekend, Dr. Coates would like to perform an EEG on Liam to check the activity of the brain, especially in the area that was affected by the stroke.  This will help determine the risk of seizures.  The doctor seemed confident that the EEG will show normal brain activity.  There are no risks to the test and it is non-invasive.  This will happen in a few weeks.

(We mentioned what Liam's speech therapist said about the funny feeling and he explained that that usually happens sooner after the stroke.)

Mike and I communicated with him that we investigated a second opinion at Lurie's and Dr. Coates was pleased with our decision to go there ("If I were to send you anywhere for a second opinion I would have chosen Lurie's and Dr. Wainwright."). 

We asked Dr. Coates for his thoughts on performing an angiogram on Liam as a final test and for a definite answer of "everything is normal".  He said he doesn't normally perform angiograms in cases like this and is confident it would come back normal.  However, he did say, if it was his nephew he would encourage them to "go ahead and do the test." 

We asked about the risks and Dr. Coates said the risks were very low for Liam.  Had the team found Liam to have Moyamoya during any of the testing, then the risk for the test causing a stroke would be high because of the nature of the disease.  But, Liam does not have anything showing that would make our doctor believe the test to be risky.  Also, the dye that is used in the angiogram is the same dye (or contrast) that they already used for his MRI and MRA.  (Rarely patients are allergic to the dye and that causes their vessels to spasm.)  The biggest concern would be the general anesthesia that would be needed to perform the test.  This test is definitely invasive and the decision to move forward with it is something we will seriously consider.

As our appointment came to an end Dr. Coates said, "I feel like we have a good plan for moving forward."  I couldn't agree more.  We've got the EEG scheduled, another follow-up appointment, and maybe an angiogram.