Well, the first night in our house without the kids. I've been without out them while I stayed in the hospital this summer a few times, but this was the first night that we choose to have them stay somewhere else, while we stayed at our house. Alone. Now, don't think was for some amazing, kid free night. No this wasn't this case, although that would be fun!! Instead, it was because I had an outpatient test in Boston that I had to arrive at the hospital at 5:45 for! Sooo, we figured to ship the kids off the night before would be a better choice, for us, for them, and for the people watching them all day on Thursday! We brought Avery to my parents and Cameron went to Mark's parents. It just made it easier in the long run for them to only have one kid over night and then for the whole next day. Not to mention it was raining, boo. I thought I would be a mess laying in bed without either of my kids tucked nice and warm in there own bed in the rooms next to ours, but I wasn't really. I don't know why. Maybe it was because we dropped them off pretty late (late like 6:30! ha). Maybe it was because I was nervous about the next day. Or maybe it was because I took a Tylenol PM to get me through the night. Regardless, I survived the first night without my babies in my own home for the first time in 2yrs and 9mos! Not that I want to get use to that at all, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad to try a date or two every now and then. Maybe next time it won't be for a medical reason, either!
In regards to that, I had a WADA test that I had to do. Its a fairly invasive test that they do in an operating room. They are essentially inducing a stroke, one side at a time, without long term side effects. They do this by going in an artery in your upper right leg and inject a dye, take some pictures of your brain, then insert some medication through a blood vessel to turn off one side of your brain at a time to test which side of the brain houses your language and memory. While each side is off they ask you questions, show you pictures and objects and ask you what they are. With me, they did the left side first. As they put the medicine in, they had me hold my arms up and count. When I got to, say 10, my left arm dropped, my vision in that eye got blurry and my language was slurred, to the point of hardly understanding. When they asked me questions, I could understand them, but could not get words out, or maybe i could but very slllloooowly! I doubt they could understand me. Also, when they showed me pictures, I couldn't remember what they were. After they turned that side back on, my speech came back and I could remember all of the things that they showed me. When they turned the right side off, my right arm flopped down. They showed me three things at a time and asked me to tell them which one they had showed me when my left side was turned off. I told them which one, with 100% confidence. I felt fine and spoke fine and when they were down I even asked them, "Aren't you going to turn this side off?" I didn't even think it had been done yet.
So anyway, I don't know the detailed results yet, but the results that I took from the test was what I thought it would show: That most of my memory and language is house on the left hemisphere of the brain, like 95% of right handed people. Since I had EEG leeds on during this test, the doctors will be able to see much more closely where this speech and language is firing from when being used. This way, when surgery comes they'll know more closely what not to remove.
Sounds like a fun day, huh? I was in the hospital until about 4 and was told I couldn't do anything today, with no lifting so that the hole in the artery could heal. Boring day!! But at least I had my hubby and kids home :)
Here I was before the procedure (Since this was not a fun post, at least this should make you laugh!! I look like a zombie!):
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