Phew, eventually, Bonzo has had his EEG.
The fun all started on Sunday when I had to deprive him of 5 hours sleep. Keep him up 3 hours late on Sunday, and wake him up 2 hours early on Monday. The funniest part of this was that Bonzo had no idea why I was keeping him up late and he clearly thought I had lost the plot. ‘Mummy, it’s really dark now, shouldn’t I be in bed’ – ‘no, let’s just play another game’…….. For a boy who is used to (and needs) a 6pm bedtime, 9pm is very, very late, and for a Mummy that is used to long evenings, I had little time to cram in lots of jobs!
In the morning I woke him, and told him it was the day when we were going for the ‘special test to see how well his brain was doing’. I had asked for advice on Twitter about what to tell him, and opted to discuss it generally and show him pictures of the wires etc. He took all this in, and seemed fine and excited about a trip to hospital.
By 7am, things were quite different – the novelty of early morning waking had worn off, so I was quite happy to drop him off for a morning at school.
At lunch time I collected him, and now the fun began – how to get Bonzo to a hospital, 90 minutes drive away without him falling asleep. Aha, I had a trick up my sleeve. Bonzos toy collection is almost entirely battery & beep free (he has Hexbugs, they need batteries!). So, as a real treat, I bought a hideous phonics reader in the sales. It is truly hideous, but it did the job for half the journey.
We stopped for lunch and Bonzo practically fell asleep in his burger (which was also meant to be a treat to excite him and keep him awake). Quick stop for sugar and the last few miles he stayed awake.
The hospital had a fabulous children’s waiting room and we were the only patients waiting.
We had a lovely neurophysiologist who involved Bonzo, but also managed to ask things tactfully (ie past, birth details etc) without him hearing things that he didn’t need to.
Once he had been marked up, glued up and wired up, he had several tests to do. He had to stare at flashing lights of different speeds, then do deep breathing and blowing windmills for 3 minutes, and then sleep. As well as being tired, he had taken some drug when we arrived, so sleeping happened very quickly & deeply.
All in all, he was a star. And we had one major break through. For the first time in a needy situation Bonzo held my hand. He will happily hold my hand walking along the road etc, but has never accepted hand holding in a ‘needy’ situation before. Normally he would just pull it away. This time he reached for my hand and held it till he was asleep. Big steps.
So, home we went with a slightly hungover little boy, a prize of Lego waiting for him, and straight home to bed.
And, as for a premium pupil, what he actually has is a ‘pupil premium’. I received a letter from school yesterday saying that school received a small amount of extra money for him as he has been ‘looked after’ for more than 6 months and that they would like to offer him play therapy. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the therapist and then it is all systems go. This was a complete surprise for me, but a very welcome surprise. The school can choose how to spend the money – they have clearly thought about Bonzo and found, I think, a perfect way to spend the money.
EEG results will be ready in a month or so, play therapy results will take much longer, but as his emotions have taken a big downward turn since being back at school, any positive result will be welcome.
That’s really good that his school is so on the ball. Hope the test results are good.
Good luck, it sounds like you did a great job getting him there.
I remember reading about play therapy as a student – Dibs In Search Of Self. It was an engrossing read and an effective therapy. I hope it works for Bonzo too.
The little hand hold made my heart skip a little. These things may seem so tiny to some are enormous in your life and are the tiny things that keep us going. Look forward to hearing how the play therapy and the test results turn out.
Thanks!