Lab Rat

Yes, that's me. The lab rat. I've kinda felt that way lately, anyway. I've had to go in for several tests lately, EEG's, tilt tables, etc., all of which are meant to make you dizzy or lightheaded (trying to recreate symptoms I'm having and monitor my body's reaction). The last was definitely the craziest. They actually didn't have to do anything to recreate symptoms, but the setup and take-down was bad enough. First of all, they said I couldn't put any gel or products in my hair. We all know how that goes. They were reconsidering when they saw me take it out of the hair rubberband. Lion's main. I'm  pretty sure I haven't gone that long without gel for over 10 years, and for good reason. Then, they had to rub my scalp with abrasives so the stuff would stick on better, but they rubbed to hard that I have tender cuts and scabs all over my head. After that, they basically super glued the 22 nodes for the 22 wires all over my head, and a couple for an EKG on my chest. So, I have my dry hair tangled in with all of the wires, and they velcroed it together behind my head, ha. All the wires came to a box in a strap on my chest, and those connected to a recording box around my waist.  To top it off, my whole head was then wrapped in gauze so the wires weren't exposed. Fabulous.

I had to wear it all for 24 hours. I was worried that the baby would pull out the wires. They told me--just don't let that happen. Great. Surprisingly, when he tried and I told him no, he left them alone for the rest of the test. But he did give me plenty of funny looks for having my head wrapped in gauze. Landon decided that if I basically had my head in a cast, he had to sign it. And he made sure to sign it for Tyson as well. You just can't have a cast without signing it, right?

The good thing about the whole test is that I had to right down everything I did. That means that I ate a lot less junk food and snacks, because you don't want to write that down for everyone. Anyway, when they took it off, I was told that there was a high chance I would have super glue dandruff for weeks. But my odds were best if I put a whole bottle of conditioner on my dry scalp ("Saturate it", she told me), and left it for a half hour. The best part is next. Then we had to use a fine-toothed comb and try to scrape all the glue off and comb it out of my hair--all before getting it wet. I don't even own a comb or a brush. You just don't do that to my hair, especially when it's dry. Luckily Landon had one with his haircutting kit. Bless his heart, he tried loosening everything with the comb. He had a hard time distinguishing between the red wax markings they put on and the red areas that were from the abrasion before, so it was slightly painful. But I took another half hour in the shower, and I think we did a pretty good job.

The test was crazy, but I think my hair made it all the more enjoyable. I don't find out my results for a couple weeks, but we are praying that it's not siezures--which will last at least a year, and probably for life. Pray!