Post date: Aug 7, 2009 3:50:17 PM
We finally got the last of Rowan's test results yesterday. It was his muscle biopsy, to determine if he has muscle disease.
Dr. Westworth is on vacation for two weeks, so I got the report from one of the other neurologists. She said that the specialist who analyzed Rowan's tissue at the University of San Diego was confounded. He had "never seen anything like it before." It was "really unusual." All they could say was that it was consistent with the MRI--i.e., "there is inflammation." Obviously this doesn't tell us much.
Their best guess was masticatory muscle myositis, even though it's unilateral and Rowan tested negative for MMM on the titer test. But this could be because it's still early in the disease. Or, he could be having an autoimmune reaction to a low grade infection. No one can say. The plan is to wait for Dr. Westworth to get back and then decide where to go from here.
In the meantime, Rowan has shown no change since the dent appeared about a month ago. The dent is still there. It doesn't seem to be getting better or worse, and it doesn't seem to be spreading to the other side. He is still using his jaw normally. He is the same happy, energetic ball fanatic he's always been.
The mystery continues.