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Monday 8 April 2013

Josie's EEG at CHEO - Exactly What Happens During an EEG?

On April 3rd we took Josie to CHEO for an EEG.  I posted about the experience last week.  (If you haven't read it, check it out here!)  It has been brought to my attention that there was interest in knowing more about the trip, specifically about what the EEG involved.  It wasn't too long of a process, the steps were easy enough to remember!  So here is what happens when you take your child to CHEO for an EEG.  (Or at least what happened for us!)



  1. First you check in at Unit C9.  I had to confirm Josie's information, my information and Kevin's information.  The basics, names, address, phone numbers, doctors names, etc.
  2. When you're called you go into a decent sized room with a few chairs and a bed.  (and of course lots of equipment!)  There is also a TV for the child to watch, and there are some toys to play with.
  3. The child lies down on the bed and the technician preps his/her skull.  This involves marking the head with a red wax crayon, cleaning the areas, applying some kind of gel and attaching the electrodes.
  4. Once the electrodes are in place, the technician wraps gauze around the head to keep them where they need to be.
  5. The first part of the actual test just involves your child laying quietly while the machine takes its readings.  For us that lasted about 20 mins.
  6. For the second part of the test there is a strobe light that flashes.  I believe there were 18 sets of flashes, each going faster than the previous.
  7. The last part of the test the child has to close their eyes for 10 seconds and repeat that a few times.  If your child is young (or doesn't listen like mine!) you hold a washcloth or towel over their eyes for them.
  8. The electrodes are removed.
  9. The technician offered to wash her hair, but in our case I knew that would be a bad idea!
  10. You're free to go!
We were told the results would take about two weeks to get to our doctor.  The entire thing took about two hours for us, but we had an uncooperative child at the beginning!  The prep stuff (attaching the electrodes) took the longest.

If you have any more questions let me know!


2 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post! My son is going for an EEG tomorrow and I had no clue what to expect.

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    Replies
    1. I'm so glad that you found it helpful! :-) I hope it goes well for you both!

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