Tweak neuro meds,

Yesterday the neurologist was happy to see Denise better than she was at the hospital last week, and much better than she was at the very beginning of January. He tweaked the meds and their dosages some more to fine-tune everything to meet Denise's needs. He gave us a list of side-effects and warning signs to look for in her behavior and wants to keep following her. Still no answer as to whether what she's gone through recently was caused by the infection on the move or something else. Nor could he tell us whether the lesions that showed up on the most recent MRI are "old" (from November, or earlier) or more recent. We also don't know if things should get better, stay the same, or get worse. More wait & see. The neurologist asked Denise some times tables math questions and she couldn't answer them (more on that later). The infectious disease doctor thought the enhancements on the MRI were granulomas that show up to encapsulate the problem sites. That's an oversimplification, but it's a positive opinion.
Last night Denise requested a particular catalog that she had while manic. Since she's been pretty even-keeled for a while, I gave it to her. She couldn't believe all the things she wanted to order that she didn't even like & wouldn't want. She also was a little down about seeing her calculations that she'd written in the margins. She tried to redo the calculations and said she couldn't remember what to do. Simple addition isn't difficult anymore, but everything else is difficult. So this morning when I visited her before work she was sort of sad & frustrated by what's gone on/going on mentally. I reassured her that no matter what happens, I'll still be more nuts than her. Anyway I'm going to raid the teacher resource room and photocopy some math worksheets for her so we can practice. Photocopy... good thing we don't use ditto machines anymore. Anybody else remember carrying cold wet ditto sheets for your teacher & almost passing out from the smell of those things?

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