It's a true epileptic attack."
"Yeah, well, that isn't Regan," Chris rebutted. "And how come it's happening just all of a sudden?"
"Look, we still aren't sure that's what she's got, and I grant you that maybe you were right in the first place; very possibly it's psychosomatic. However, I doubt it. And to answer your question, any number of changes in the function of the brain can trigger a convulsion in the epileptic: worry; fatigue; emotional stress; a particular note on a musical instrument. I once had a patient, for instance, who never used to have a seizure except on a bus when he was a block away from home. Well, we finally discovered what was causing it: flickering light from a white slat fence reflected in the window of the bus. Now at another time of day, or if the bus had been going at a different speed, he wouldn't have convulsed, you see. He had a lesion, a scar in the brain that was caused by some childhood disease. In the case of your daughter, the scar would be forward--- up front in the temporal lobe--- and when it's hit by a particular electrical impulse of a certain wavelength and periodicity, it triggers a sudden burst of abnormal reactions from deep within a focus in the lobe. Do you see?"
"I guess," Chris sighed, dejected. "But I'll tell you the truth, doc, I don't understand how her whole personality could be changed."
"In temporal lobe, that's extremely common, and can last for days or even weeks. It isn't rare to find destructive and even criminal behavior. There's such a big change, in fact, that two or three hundred years ago people with temporal lobe disorders were often considered to be possessed by a devil."
"They were what?"
"Taken over by the mind of a demon. You know, something like a superstitious version of split personality."
Chris closed her eyes and lowered her forehead onto a fist. "Listen, tell me something good,"
she murmured.
"Well, now, don't be alarmed. If it is a lesion, in a way she's fortunate. Then all we have to do is remove the scar."
"Oh, swell."
"Or it could be just pressure on the brain. Look, I'd like to have some X-rays taken of her skull.
There's a radiologist here in the building, and perhaps I can get him to take you right away.
Shall I call him?"
"God, yes; go ahead; let's do it."
Klein called and set it up. They would take her immediately, they told him.
He hung up the phone and began writing a prescription. "Room twenty-one on the second floor.
Then I'll probably call you tomorrow or Thursday. I'd like a neurologist in on this. In the meantime, I'm taking her off the Ritalin. Let's try her on Librium for a while."
He ripped the prescription sheet from the pad and handed it over. "I'd try to stay close to her, Mrs. MacNeil. In these walking trance states, if that's what it is, it's always possible for her to hurt herself. Is your bedroom close to hers?"
"Yeah, it is."
"That's fine. Ground floor?"
"No, second."
"Big windows in her bedroom?"
"Well, one. What's the deal?"
"Well, I'd try to keep it closed, maybe even put a lock on it. In a trance state, she might go through it. I once had a---"
"---Patient," Chris finished with a trace of a wry, weary smile.
He grinned. "I guess I do have a lot of them, don't I?"
"A couple."
She propped her face on her hand and leaned thoughtfully forward. "You know, I thought of something else just now."
"And what was that?"
"Well, like after a fit, you were saying, she'd right away fall dead asleep. Like on Saturday night. I mean, didn't you say that?"
"Well, Yes." Klein nodded. "That's right."
"Well, then, how come those other times she said that her bed was shaking, she was always wide awake?"
"You didn't tell me that."
"Well, its so. She looked just fine. She'd just come to my room and then ask to get in bed with me."
"Bed wetting? Vomiting?"
Chris shook her head. "She was fine."
Klein frowned and gently chewed on his lip for a moment. "Well, let's look at those X-rays,"
he finally told her.
Feeling drained and numb, Chris shepherded Regan to the radiologist; stayed at her side while the X-rays were taken; took her home. She'd been strangely mute since the second injection, and Chris made an effort now to engage her.
