MRI... why?

[MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday]

Last week, my daughter had her tonsils out ..not much fun at 22 poor girl.
Following surgery she had a horrific recovery... instead of coming round from the op, she had a massive tonic clonic (full blown) 5 min seizure.

Then another, and another... over the next 24 hours she had 9 tonic clonics , then next day a couple of smaller ones. She is normally (we thought) a reasonably healthy medical student, in her 4th year at uni!

It was terrifing to witness, and the docs and nurses were obviously VERY concerned.
It turns out she has had at least a couple before, twice when very ill, and once after too much alcohol !

She has an eeg next week, and an MRI. The eeg I can understand.. I assume they are looking for signs of epilepsy, tho I don't know what it will show if she isn;'t having a seizure at the time?

But the MRI?? Are they looking for brain tumours or something?

I'm worried, obviously but glad they are checking her out because if she does in fact have epilepsy , it needs treating before she is a junior doctor!

It will most likely be to rule out something like a tumour, which although sounds terrifying very often isn't. I currently have a brain tumour which is just happily sitting away and being watched by doctors.

It's always better to make sure there isn't something like that which could be causing her seizures, and even if there IS it may well be very easily fixed.

So as scary as this situation is for both of you, the best thing to do is just wait for the results and go from there- it's all you can do.

Best wishes to you and your daughter.

The MRI would be to check for a tumour, yes. But also to look for any malformation in the brain structure which might be causing the fitting. How very scary for all of you. I hope all is ok.

Thank you for your replies.. they are reassuring!

I hope she doesn't have epilepsy (not particularly terrifying in itself to me as I work with disabled children and witness seizures regularly) but because it will inevitably affect her career, and she has major exams looming so not a good time to put her on new drugs!)

She is probably not 'neurotypical' anyway.. she is on still on Ritalin for ADHD, and Prozac to control her ASD/OCD/anxiety disorder, but still has aced all her medical school stuff all the way and is on track to be an amazing doctor!

Just a tiny part of me is scared shitless that they will find a nasty tumour and ruin everything she has worked so hard for...

EEG shows the electrical activity of the brain and yes you can see epileptic activity when not in a seizure. The MRI shows the structure of the brain.

You need to see both really to see if there is an underlying problem.