Why no posts for a week…

I’ve recently learned that when one of your sons looks at you and both eyes aren’t pointing the same way, calmly, but promptly calling his doctor’s office is the right thing to do. Then get ready for an exhausting time.

One of my twin boys, Robert, age 8, woke up sick to his stomach on Saturday, while also complaining about his eye. He spent most of the day laying down, sleeping, and squinting. It wasn’t till Sunday afternoon that he looked at me with both eyes, and thought I was looking at the next Marty Feldman (or for Harry Potter fans, Mad-eye Moody). And I found the reason he was laying around was that he couldn’t walk.

The ER didn’t find anything wrong with a CAT scan, so we were referred to an eye specialist who is booked out till July. But since he had talked to the ER, and my wife pushed his receptionist to talk to him, we got in Monday. He immediately sent him back to the ER for an MRI.

Turns out he as two problems…the eye problem is just a symptom of the real problem:
Symptom: “One and a half syndrome”. Websites on this describe the odd behavior of they eye in a nearly foreign language. This could be caused by any number of brain problems.

Cause: “ADEM” or ” Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis ” which is a form of encephalitis. It usually is a latent reaction to a previous viral infection, but not necessarily, as in Robert’s case. The neurologist says its a lot like a one-time, temporary bought of multiple sclerosis. He says he sees only 10-15 cases a year in Grand Rapids.

Here is a website that talks about ADEM in almost-english.

So, the prognosis is excellent, but he has to spend the week at the hospital getting poked and prodded, plus getting steriod treatments.

Me? Its been an experience. The marketer in me is constantly looking for the poor usability issues in what we’ve gone thru. Mostly they are details…like shouldn’t doctors have business cards they can give you so that you can tell the next doctor who you talked to last? The kid has about 5 different doctors looking after him.

I’ve posted this to help anyone else in my situation learn about these problems and find out they aren’t alone. It is a bit rare, especially to have both. Anyway, back to the hospital.