Carol and Cara ... hope that the results come back with good news.  Really glad that Cara was able to sleep and be still for the testing!!!!!  When they did Sean's MRI/MRA/CTA in Des Moines they ended up using concious sedation to keep him still enough!  (Gotta love that 3 yr old!)

Regarding the "no hyperventilation", that is usually a precaution taken when there is concern about blood flow to the brain.  Blowing, whistling, etc., are considered forms of hyperventilation because they can increase pressure (restricting blood flow) in the back of the head.  With Cara's history of MM they most likely are doing this as a precaution.

Right now we are restricting the blowing parts of Sean's speech therapy because the doc in Boston gave us a "no hyperventilation" restriction for Sean.

MedLine Plus defines an EEG as: An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a test to detect abnormalities in the electrical activity of the brain.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003931.htm

The reasons to perform an EEG (partial):

EEG is used to help diagnose the presence and type of seizure disorders, to look for causes of confusion, and to evaluate head injuries, tumors, infections, degenerative diseases, and metabolic disturbances that affect the brain.

I would guess that they are looking for abnormal spikes or valleys in brain activity that could help diagnose seizure activity.  In fact, Dr. Scott has told us that they will have Sean hooked up to an EEG monitoring the areas of his brain that they are not working on during his synangiosis (EDAS) surgery.  If they do not detect any abnormal activity, they will do both sides at the same time.  If any abnormal activity is present, they will do one side on the 11th and the other side a week later.



Hope this helps a bit.

Steve