Finally, Another Update

I've finished my Spring '11 semester, I've nearly finished a summer class, I'm not going back to campus this Fall, but I'm still taking two classes at LETU in the fall - from home.

On Friday the 29th, I'm getting a 3-Tesla MRI at USC.
I've had MRIs before, but not this powerful. Hopefully, this one will be able to see abnormalities in my brain that the others could not, thus finding where my seizures start.
Dr. Maleeva says she thinks the probability of finding something is about 20% - or maybe 30% - I no longer remember which she said. But either way, it's a pretty good probability.
One obstacle to my being able to have this MRI is my VNS, because the wire wrapped around my vagal nerve will have some current induced withing the metal by the magnetic field, causing it to heat up. That could cook my nerve. However, USC has figured out a way to do it so that the wire in a patient with a VNS does not heat up significantly, and has done it several times without injuring anyone.

If the MRI is successful and the spot in my brain where the seizures start is found, I will need another grid EEG under my skull before they have it pinpointed enough to do anything. The trauma of 3 years ago does not make this out of the question, or even raise a significant doubt in my neurologist's mind, because this grid will be much smaller than the first one; the MRI will have eliminated most of the area covered the first time.

Assuming that the MRI does succeed and the EEG pinpoints where the seizures start, there will be at least one new option for eliminating my seizures. If the seizures start in my left temporal lobe, a part of the brain that can be done without, then the surgical resection that I was hoping for up till three years ago will be an option. If the seizures start in the frontal lobe, where the intelligence is located, then my neurologist does not want me to get a resection for fear of damaging it. But that will not mean no hope of ending epilepsy, because a new device is being examined by the FDA, called a NeuroPace, which is similar to the VNS except that instead of being implanted in the chest and attached to a nerve, it will be implanted on the surface of the brain, right where the seizures start, and instead of being activated periodically and by a magnet, it will detect seizures starting and then zap them. Dr. Maleeva's suspicion of the seizures starting in the frontal lobe has chased away most anticipation of getting a resection, and so I am mostly looking forward to getting a NeuroPace.

Please pray that the MRI will be successful, and that I will soon be healed of my epilepsy, whether by resection, NeuroPace, or miracle.