Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Road Trippin'

We just got back from San Francisco. Ali had an appointment with her neurologist, the infamous Dr. S., at California Pacific Medical Center. I love Dr. S. But Dr. S. has always been the most negative about Ali's prognosis of everyone on Ali's medical team. He's always told straight out that Ali would not progress very far.

I guess some doctors take that position so that parents will not have false hope. That way, if the patient exceeds the expectations set, they are happy no matter what. And the doctor comes out smelling like a rose.

This was Dr. S's tactic. And he usually smelled as good as a rose, but not exactly like one. Dr. S is quite dapper. But Dr. S said that Ali would always be on medicine called keppra to prevent seizures. He was also the doctor that said that Ali would be blind and an epileptic. He said that Ali may never breathe without a machine. A rarely smiled when working with Ali. And when we had planning meeting to discuss Ali's rehabilitation here in Eureka, he usually said his piece and then left the room. After he was gone, the rest of the doctors and nurses would do damage control to try and give us some hope and to lift our spirits. That's the effect Dr. S. had on us.

But on this visit, Dr. S. smiled. He was a little giddy, in fact, when he examined Ali. Ali was responsive and smiling and laughing during the examination. This floored Dr. S. He shined his little flashlight in Alis' eye, end she looked at him and followed his movements with her eyes.

"Did you see that?" asked Dr. S. "She looked at me. Her eyes followed me."

"She does that," said the charming and beautiful Susan.

It was our best visit ever with Dr. S. He was even talking about taking Ali off keppra. Ali was supposed to be on keppra the rest of her life. Now she could be off it some time this winter, spring at the latest.

"I'm impressed," he said. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it."

We love Dr. S.

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