It's Raining

Alyssa had a grand mal seizure early Saturday morning. It was one of the scariest things that I have ever seen. She is ok. There is no tumor, which was my greatest fear, but we still don't have any real answers. More tests will be happening this week. She is on an anti-seizure medication now. So yes, all three of my children are now taking medications. It is quite the assembly line both morning and night now.

We think that she has been having seizures for several weeks now. 3 weeks ago she came in one night saying that her right arm was shaking. We thought that maybe she had slept on it funny. Last Sunday she woke up feeling nauseous and was then fine a couple of hours later. In the middle of the night early Monday morning she came in saying that her arm was shaking again. Jeff put her in bed with him (I was in bed with Jared), and an hour later she woke him saying that it was happening again and this time he actually saw her right arm spasming. We thought that it was a little strange so we took her to the pediatrician that day and he ordered lab work. Lab work came back normal. The rest of the week she told us each morning that she was having one or two of these episodes each night. Friday morning she woke up nauseous again and was fine a couple of hours later. At this point I called the pediatrician and he referred us to neurology. An appointment was scheduled for April. Friday night Jeff decided to sleep in Alyssa's room to keep an eye on her. He was inspired. At three in the morning her arm was spasming again. At 5 AM he heard her say Dad and then she started seizing completely. He picked her up and yelled at me (I was with Jared), I jumped out of bed and immediately knew that it was a seizure and told Jeff to call 911. She seized for 2-3 minutes and then was unconscious for another 5-10 minutes. The poor thing woke up with several paramedics surrounding her and an oxygen mask on. She was pretty terrified. So she and I took a ride in the ambulance up to Primaries. I just couldn't believe that my child that was my healthy one was now on her way to the hospital in an ambulance! How could this be happening to my sweet princess?

After spending the day in the ER we are now understanding more about seizures. It is definitely more scary for those witnessing them they are for those experiencing them. We now know what to do if she has another big one and have special medicine to give her if she has one that lasts longer than 5 mins. She is fine and is tired of us making a fuss over her. Her CT scan was normal, thank goodness, but her EEG looked a little abnormal so we will be repeating that in a couple of weeks and doing it overnight since that is when her seizures are happening. We will also be having an MRI done this week as well. The neurologists told us that seizures are very common in children and they often never know what has caused them and that they are often weened off of the anti-seizure meds. after a few years and never have another seizure again. Hopefully this will be the case with Alyssa, but the tests will be able to give us a better idea of if she might have a seizure disorder for life.

All ready for her EEG and just as cute and feisty as ever!

She has been ok the last couple of nights but that is because Jeff is sleeping with her and waking her up every few minutes during her magical hours of 3 - 6 AM. I told him that last night was the last night that he can do this because we need to see if the medicine is helping and because both of them need sleep! He was so scared for Alyssa and thought that he was losing her. He just keeps saying that he is just happy to have her for another day. Both of us will never forget seeing her like that. And we hope that we won't have to see too many more. We are just so grateful that it is so far nothing too serious.

We came home so tired and emotions raw. My mom had been sweet and had spent the day with the boys and had make us dinner. At about 7:30 pm we got a call from my Dad saying that he was headed to my sister, Rachel's house, because her husband was not doing well. He was having a reaction to a medication that he was on. So, we had an ambulance at my house early Saturday morning and an ambulance at my sister's house Saturday night.

It's Raining.

My mom and Dad were with us Saturday morning helping and were with my sister at the hospital and helping with her kids until early Sunday morning. My dad climbed into bed and said that it had been the longest day of his life.

I know why we have challenges and I know that we won't be challenged with something that we cannot overcome but sometimes it just seems too hard. We are all tired. But we have many blessings as well. We have wonderful family and friends who would do anything for us. We have incredible medical services available to us and our faith and knowledge of the gospel will be our anchors. Our family will get though these challenges. Because even when it is raining, a rainbow is soon to follow. is soon to follow.