Wednesday 13 February 2008

Gary's EEG At Last!

Today, after I had my radiotherapy we went to get Gary's EEG. It was a last minute cancellation appointment so we only found out about it yesterday. We arrived an hour early because the cancer hospital is a few minutes walk away from the hosital where Gary had his appointment. There were two hours between our appointments so we killed an hour in a cafe and then wandered over to The Royal Hallamshire Hospital for Gary. Luckily they saw Gary straight away. I asked if I could take photos and the nurse didn't mind. So here's what they did to him:
The nurse attached a rubber 'hairnet' and then placed little connector blocks under it that connected to Gary's scalp with a special gel. Once she had done this she clipped wires to them. It probably took about 20 minutes.

These wires were connected to the machine that could pick up Gary's brain waves.

Gary was then asked to lay on a couch as some of the tests might bring on a seizure. The tests were quite simple. First he had to close his eyes for two minutes and then open them for two minutes while the nurse took readings. I assume this was to gauge normal brain function. Then he had to do deep breathing for 3 minutes in order to make him hyper-ventilate. Then they flashed strobe lighting in his eyes at various speeds. Luckily/unluckily (depends on which way you look at it) it didn't bring on a fit. Being NHS, Gary won't find out the results for up to six weeks! Oh well, seeing as they probably won't even find anything I suppose it doesn't really matter!

5 comments:

Croom said...

Oooh, poor Gary looks like something out of Frankenstein!

It is a long time to wait.
Oh well let us know anything as you find out please. Tinaxx

Babs (Beetle) said...

Poor Gary! Why is Gary on NHS when it's through his company that you get private health care? Six weeks is a long time :O(

weechuff said...

I expect Gary will be able to dine out on this for ages if he gets Sindie to print off some photos and he keeps them in his wallet!!

granny grimble said...

All he needs is a bolt through his neck!
Poor Gary, what an ordeal to go through. Arthur had one of those but I wasn't there so didn't know what it entailed. (Good job)
Why didn't he go private for a speedier prognosis? I bet Livvie was enthralled with the photos!

Gary said...

BUPA are refusing to pay out any more as Gary's out-patient allowance has reached it's limit.
:0(