Good News from a Taher-orist

Today Steph had a visit with Dr. Mohammed Taher (Tah -hair), a neurologist located here in American Fork. She was a bit apprehensive going in – not sure what we were going to find out. After filling out the fat stack of paperwork, we were ushered into an exam room plastered with posters describing Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Comforting, but we'll pass. Thanks. 

After dozens of questions about her current and past medical history, and a whole slew of motor skills tests (all of which Steph passed with flying colors), the doctor gave us as much of a diagnosis as possible at this point. Basically, about 1% of the population will have a seizure some time in their lives. Once you've had a seizure, the probability you'll have another one is about 10%. Not too high. Once that second one comes, however, the probability of a third or more jumps to about 70%. So at this point, and in particular because Steph has no history of seizures or indications of a propensity for them, there's not a high likelihood she'll have another seizure. Doctor Taher also scheduled an EEG test for Steph next week. They'll gather data about her brainwave activity, and if the results are positive, that will cut her probability of another episode to less than 5%. If the results are negative, she'll be in the 5 - 10% area, and the doctor will order a full MRI. But we're confident that the results will be very positive, and do nothing more than confirm our feeling all along that this seizure was a crazy little fluke, or as Dr. Taher put it, an "electrolyte imbalance" brought about by something unknown but relatively harmless – fatigue, stress, etc. And he did say that there's no getting around the three months of no driving – it's the law.

Steph is doing well. Her spirits are high. But she's still trying to come to grips with the fact that this really happened. Like I mentioned before, she has no memory of the seizure, and has to rely on my descriptions of it. She's been wondering what would have happened if I hadn't woken up, if we would have both slept through it. Would we have even known anything occurred? She would have been sore (today is actually worse than yesterday in that regard), but probably would have assumed she had the flu or something similar. I can't imagine not knowing something like that was going on next to me, but she didn't convulse, and the noises she made aside from her initial yelp were not loud. It's possible I could have kept on snoring and never known. But as it happened, I had to go and call the ambulance and sentence her to three months of no driving. Sorry sweetie. Maybe I should have thought it through some more. ;-)

Thanks again to everyone for your sincere prayers and your willingness to help. The no driving thing is going to be the hardest part going forward, but so many people have stepped forward to offer their time to help us get through this huge inconvenience. We're so blessed to have the great friends and family that we do.

- Dave

P.S. To close this out, we stopped by Heather's for a quick visit. Steph climbed in bed next to her so they could look at a home design magazine together. To use a Heather-ism, it was "precious." I took a picture, but they asked me to Photoshop some makeup on them and remove their double chins. Ask and ye shall receive, ladies. You're welcome.

Here's the original for comparison purposes. I know. I'm a genius.