Our Way of Dealing with Stress

The girls and I have decided they need super hero names. Emma is (drum roll, please) Concussion Girl, which leaves Alta only one possibility; Seizure Girl. I've talked to them, and they're in complete agreement. So far, we've got a couple super hero powers for each girl. Concussion Girl can confuse her enemies, make them forget where they are and what they're doing, or even knock them out with one thought. On a good day, she can make them forget who they are, thus stopping bad behavior. Seizure Girl can make the ground under the enemy quake. She silences her enemies by immobilizing their tongues. It's a great interrogation technique. She can ask questions, and they can nod yes or no. She also has the ability to bring unconsciousness on with a thought. Help us out, what other super-hero powers can we give these two?

Because I need to Laugh. On The Rocks - Bad Romance - 4/23/10

Seizure Update

Alta had a great morning. I think we were all excited about it. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and was in and out of sleep. Every sound I heard I opened my eyes, looked at the clock, and waited. Would there be more? Which child was moving around? Would she have a seizure without making sounds? How would we know? Instead of giving into the questions and fear, I stayed in bed. Just because I couldn't sleep didn't mean I should wake her up. When those moments of fear or frustration creep up, and tears threaten to spill. When I want to run to God crying and asking why, I remind myself that it's not really that bad. Yes, it looks like she has a seizure disorder, but it could be worse, there are many, much more severe seizure disorders that what she may have. I'll be thankful for whatever good I can get. I remind myself, that when I feel like crying, that's the perfect time for praying, it's much more useful for my family. I also remind myself that when things get tough, we just need to get tougher. No one accomplished anything by giving up. We have this country I love because ordinary people got tougher when life got tough. I look at my ancestors and all the adversity they went through. I have a wonderful legacy to draw strength from because when life got tough, these people got tougher. I have a very firm belief that God won't give me things I can't handle without him. I may flounder a bit, and success might not be pretty, but we will get there, and we'll be all the better for it. Maybe this is the legacy our family passes on, and lesson for my children. As for the immediate future, she has an MRI appointment scheduled for next week, still waiting to hear about the EEG. Began researching the two medications the doc mentioned yesterday. Thanks for stopping by, and for all the prayers. Our family really appreciates it.

Writing Updates

I'm starting with this today, because it's quick and easy. I have no updates, other than my cursor is working correctly again. Yay! I found out yesterday that all the work I did on Monday is gone, I've been told by other writers, that it's only words. They can be re-written, so that's what I plan to do today. Couldn't do it without a working cursor though :)

Writing Update

So, things aren't working so well for me this week. My cursor's jumping all over the place, making it difficult to write (a restart did not fix this problem..grr-that's supposed to fix everything). But, more upsetting than that, all the work I did yesterday has disappeared. I know I hit that stupid save button, I have no idea what happened to it, but it's gone. I made changes in a critiqued document that was sent to me. I have the original critiqued doc, but not the one with all the changes I made. So, joy of joys, I get to start all over. It better be better than it was, but we'll never find out if my stinkin' curson doesn't stop jumping around and screwing me up. I'm a little stressed-can you tell? It might just be a reading day, but then I'm two days behind tomorrow instead of one.

Seizure Updatee

I heard from the neurologist herself. I thought the nurse would call, but the doc did instead. She's leaning toward Rolandic seizures. Rolandic is the area of the brain that controls the facial area, mouth, tongue, etc. It looks like it's starting there and working its way out to something bigger, like a grand-mal. They're going to move her up on the list for the EEG, as well as schedule her for an MRI, just to double check head ct she got during the ER visit. If it happens again, before the tests, we call and let them know. Dr. Hashmati may put her on medication at that point, because of the frequency. So, seizure update, there you have it. My writing rant is coming up next.

Seizures

There was definitely another one this morning. Our friend, Ashley, let us borrow her baby monitor and we were able to hear Alta's sounds, Paul raced in there (he's closer to the door) and found her still seizing. This is important because it's the first time we've had a visual confirmation, which docs like to have. So, there was one a little over two weeks ago, possibly one yesterday, and most definitely one today. Called Neurology this morning, trying to be first on their list of call backs. I'm concerned that it's two days in a row. Unfortunately, we still don't know if it's both sides of the body or not, she was cocooned in her comforter and already on her side, but we know that her right side was affected, Paul said her whole torso was shaking. Our seizure expectation window so far is from 5am and 7:30 am. They say kids can grow out of these, hope it's soon.

Writing Updates

I've gone through chapters 4-6 and realized they no longer belong. Chapter four is completely gone, there might be a paragraph from chapter 5 that shows up somewhere else, and maybe a couple paragraphs from chapter 6. Chapter 7 I need. Over the weekend, I also joined a critique group. This is a really big step for me, because I still have thin skin, and at first act defensively and get discouraged. It takes a few days for me to process it and come up with productive questions and different ways to do things to satsify myself and my crit parter. Now, I'll have even more. And I think the rule is to be brutally honest, it's better to have your crit group point something out than an editor or agent. Not only can receiving brutal honesty be an issue for me, but so can giving it. I'm always worried about how other people feel. Guess I'll learn to get over it, or I'd better just toss in the towel now, which is not what I want. Adaptation to brutal honesty it is. Todays writing goals: 1. Create a chapter four that bridges chapter 3 and 7. 2. Gather good, productive questions to ask about the critique I got back last week and move forward. Non-writing goal: leave the yummy peanut butter cookies in the kitchen alone. One for breakfast is enough. Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Maybe? Possibly? Another One?

I dropped the kids off at school this morning, and my oldest daughter tells me, as they're getting ready to get out of the car, "I think Alta had another one." I'm confused: Another cookie? Another bowl of cereal? Another what? She tells me, "Another seizure, this morning." Em says she heard the strange hiccuping/drinking water noise this morning. She looked at the clock and it was 5:38. It lasted under a minute, she guessed around 10 seconds. Why didn't she come to get us? She wasn't sure, and she didn't want to scare her sister if she was wrong. So, maybe she had another one, maybe she didn't. We probably would have been able to tell if we'd known to check on her, Emma knows know to get us, either way. I'm happy she's in there to give us a heads up though. I tried using our old baby monitor, so I could hear, but it doesn't work. Looks like I'll be borrowing one from a friend. I'm replaying last night's events in my head looking for signs or indicators that something was off. The neurologist said that with one of the seizure possibilities, the kids feel kind of off, and may even come and complain they're not feeling well. There's the possibility of twitching in the face, or odd mouth movements. I need to know how far in advance those signals can show up. Around 9pm last night she came down complaining that she didn't feel well, that she had a headache. I gave her some Tylenol and sent her back up to bed. Because I'm paranoid, I took her temperature, it was fine. I know sometimes high fevers can trigger a seizure, so I checked. It wasn't an issue. Where does that leave us? The school nurse is trying to find out from Emma if she heard any movement - I didn't have a chance to ask her before she was out of the car and in the building. Once I know that, I need to call the neurologist back and report the possibility. I don't think that will change anything at this point though. She still scheduled for an EEG in July, and if it's the type of seizure the neurologist is leaning toward, they don't really treat it because it happens during sleep and the kids usually grow out of it. We'll have to wait and see. Isn't parenthood fun? Definitely not boring!

Results and Resolutions

Okay, busy week, full of results. First off, medical results: The dog: This is the easiest place to start. Last year he almost died, a couple times, now he has one kidney. He went in for his check up and "looked good" but we did lab work to confirm. Doc was pretty certain my dog wouldn't weigh 81 lbs now if he wasn't working right on the inside. Got the new back today, and the results for Sirius are good. But, I need to give him benedryl, he may have some allergy issues... Alta: she had an early morning seizure a week and a half ago, her follow up with the neurologist was today. We're still at the same spot we were before - they don't know what caused it. We do, however, have an EEG scheduled, that's the only test they didn't run. I mentioned the scented oil, and the idea was pretty much dismissed, although the doc did write down the websites I gathered the information from, so who knows. I just think it's a HUGE coincidence that she had a seizure when I was on my 5th migraine in 10 days - which has never happened to me before, and that oil was my trigger. Anyway, the only way to know if she's going to have another one, is if she has another one. Emma: still dealing with headaches, nausea, and vision disturbances form her concussion in February. Her doc referred her to the neurologist for re-evaluation. This was the same neurologist that saw Alta this morning. She said headaches like this are part of the concussion syndrome, that it could be 6 months before the headaches go away. If she's already susceptible to headaches, the concussion can irritate that and make them worse. It can also be that she's not getting enough sleep, and that's feeding into the problems already caused by the concussion. So, they're treating her headaches like a migraine, and using preventive medicine. Hopefully this will help out with the pain and she can enjoy things again, it should also help her sleep better, which should help too. So, medical wrap up: dog's good, nothing new with Alta, and Emma has different meds. Other updates for the week: We got out couch :) We've been married for almost 16 years and this is the first couch we've ever bought. We like it...but it's looks a lot bigger in our living room than it did in the show room! And because of the couch, we HAD to make the tank switch this week. We (mostly Paul) moved things from the 75g to the 180. The 75 and it's stand were right where some of the new furniture went. Unfortunately, not everything is set up, we have our fancy schmancy light hanging over the tank, but can't use it because the plugs are odd. We're waiting for the adapters to come in still. We also need two bulk heads for the 37 gal we're setting up so we can empty the 30 gal tank and get it moved out of the living room. All in all, though, things are doing pretty well. So, this week: 2 vet visits, dog needs benedryl, 1 downtown meeting with Paul, new couch arrived, old tank gone, 2 neurology appointments for 2 different kids, some answers, no answers, and a school carnival tonight. How was your week?