One More Turn on the Merry-Go-Round: Had the odd experience the other day of taking my son to his pediatric neurologist after about seven years away. She released us in 2005 with instructions to just get in touch if we needed something, and until now we have not. But the possibility that his brief spells of tenacious inattentiveness might be absence seizures has remained in the back of my own brain, and while he would not have been able to tolerate an ambulatory EEG in 2005, he is now, and wants to know, and needs to know if he's going to drive a car or get a job or explain to people that no he's really not just ignoring them. So back to the neuro we went, and on the one hand, let me recommend seven-year gaps between appointments, because even if he's behaving his worst, your kid is going to have made some progress. On the other hand, the doctor may not appreciate the full scope of progress and, remembering the younger version, still give you that "this kid?" look when you talk about things like going to college. He's much easier to manage during appointments now than in younger years, and fills out some of his own paperwork, so that's good. We have the EEG scheduled for his school break in February, and I expect it will prove nothing much either way, but every now and then I feel obligated to act like things might.