Nose for News, By Sarah Stultz

When most of you read this, my son, my husband and I will have already checked in to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul for a voluntary hospitalization for my son, Landon.

As I’ve written before, Landon has been diagnosed with epilepsy. Though the large seizures are under control with medication right now, it is our goal — and his doctor’s — to find out about whether some other behavior that is happening is tied to seizures as well.

For quite some time now, we have noticed some unusual behavior when Landon looks out of windows during the day and when he’s in vehicles with light-colored interiors. Landon gets lost in a daze of sorts.

When he’s in the house looking out a window during the day, he flutters his eyes. When he’s in the car, his eyes appear to be glued to the top of the car, like he is staring intently upward at something. Most of the time, we can say his name, and he will respond, but then there’s two times now that this type of behavior was happening in a vehicle and he began having a seizure.

For as long as this has been happening, we have questioned whether this was seizure activity or something else going on, so I am grateful now to finally have the opportunity to solve it once and for all — hopefully.

Landon is being admitted for a 24-hour (possibly longer) electroencephalogram — known in common terms as an EEG.

The goal is to get him looking out of windows and doing the normal things he does at home, but all while hooked up to a monitor to see if it shows up on the EEG scan as some kind of abnormal brain activity.

I’m grateful to have a doctor who has heard us bring this up as a concern a few times now and who has agreed to looking into it deeper.

I remember last time this year, on Christmas Eve to be exact, Landon had another major seizure episode, and we landed back in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic.

That was a challenging Christmas for many reasons, and this year I’m optimistic it will be a quiet one spent at home with family — at least once we get through the next few days.

Much has happened in the last year, and life continues to throw its punches — as it does for everyone — but I’m glad for this time of year when we can focus back on what is important.

Set aside the hustle and bustle of the season, and take the time this week to treasure what’s most important.

Until next time, I wish you all a blessed Christmas.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.