Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Update on all of Dallas tests:

1st test: His MRI showed that he has small amount of PVL, Periventricular leukomalacia. Here is the definition of it:

Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is damage and softening of the white matter, the inner part of the brain that transmits information between the nerve cells and the spinal cord as well as from one part of the brain to another.

With PVL, the area of damaged brain tissue can affect the nerve cells that control motor movements. As the baby grows, the damaged nerve cells cause the muscles to become spastic, or tight, and resistant to movement. This is most likely why he walks on his toes. Some children with it also have intellectual or learning difficulties from what I'm reading but my doctor didn't mention it causing any of these problems. She did say it's a "good" diagnosis because it's not a degenerative thing and we can treat it with physical therapy to stop the toe walking. He also has a small amount of fat at the bottom of his spine that we will be going to see a Neuro Surgeon to check it out in late November.


2nd test: EEG
It showed that his CPK (muscle enzyme) was mildly elevated. This could also be a cause of the toe walking. So it seems like we are getting answers when it comes to the toe walking that is. They will check him again in the future to see if it has gone down.

The crazy thing is that I almost didn't follow through with the MRI and the EEG. I really didn't feel like they were going to apply to us or help us out in any way. It didn't foresee anything coming of them, so I'm so happy that I did do it and now we have these answers.

Coming in November we will be meeting with the NeuroPsychologist and back to the Neurologist. It's been a long few months of testing but we are nearing the end I hope and knowing exactly what is going on, if anything, and what we need to do to correct it.

No comments: