Monday, January 16, 2017

Epilepsy

It's confirmed. Gus Gus has a form of epilepsy, specifically generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus, or GEFS. He started on Keppra on Monday, at half the therapeutic dose so we can ramp up to the correct dose after a week. Keppra's usual side effects include agitation and aggression. Our neurologist continues to impress me. She called me back the day after the EEG, when they had told me it would take 7-10 days for results. She talked to Lainie's neurologist before calling me, so we had a family-wide game plan. She took over Lainie's care, so we can try to combine our appointments in Kansas City. And she told me her number one priority for John is to keep his wonderful personality intact, to just help him be a seizure-free version of himself. If the first medication changes his personality, we will try a second or a third until we get the right combo to not lose John, not sedate him or change him, but to keep him safe.

Since then, he has been a grouchy Gus, a wonderful nickname from John's daycare provider. But, it's hard to tell the difference between a tired toddler and a medication side effect like that.  In my mind, we give it a month before we decide if it's the medication or a bad day. And in that month, he will have another physical with our pediatrician, and then an MRI at Children's to rule out a more sinister cause of the seizures. But let's be realistic -- with a sister with a similar diagnosis and a second sister who had one febrile seizure, a tumor is a pretty far-fetched fear. Still, we will need to rule it out.

Personally, I'm doing okay. I cried for about an hour. But that's all I needed. That, and Jay. I think I had accepted this was likely back in November. I worry about Jay; he is hurting from this. But he and I were both overwhelmed and bolstered by the outpouring of support on Facebook, of the random gifts of prayers and books (THANK YOU!) and cards and so much more. Our prayers are strong, but they are even stronger in bulk!

I think it's funny, too, how even how I approach a child with epilepsy is different with a boy. With Lainie, I worry about how she can have kids, carry a pregnancy, while on anti-epileptic meds. With John, I worry about if he will be able to drive when he is in high school. There are so many other things to worry about, but those are my big picture things: John and his independence, can Lainie be a mom.

---

My therapist has me reading a book called The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. There is one chapter titled, "Cultivating a Resilient Spirit: Letting Go of Numbing and Powerlessness." It talks about what we do to numb ourselves from feeling pain, but that if we numb our emotions from pain, we also numb them from joy. Some numb with drugs or alcohol, some with food, some with busyness. I do believe I numb with busyness. If I'm too tired to think, then I don't have to feel.

It talks about hopelessness. It asks, "how do you feel when you believe that you are powerless to change something in your life?" I do feel powerless to change this, and that's why I also was feeling hopeless. But I was focusing on the powerless to eliminate epilepsy, Instead, I need to redirect my self-appointed goals. My goal is not to eliminate epilepsy. My goal is to keep my kids safe, to do everything in my power to help them survive, intact, to adulthood. And I am not powerless in that regard. We have medication to prevent seizures, we have tylenol to prevent fevers, we have a healthy diet and lifestyle to do the best we can to prevent illness, and we have medication to stop the seizures if they do come. So, with a change in perspective, I'm no longer powerless, and therefore I'm no longer hopeless. 

The book also talks about being afraid to love, afraid to feel so deeply, because you know that sets you up for extreme pain. It's that ridiculous game I play on even the best days, where my mind starts wandering to thoughts of what-if, what if Katie had a car wreck, what if J or L had another seizure, what if Maggie continued to struggle with her own behavior issues, what if Nat feels invisible. Sad thing is, all of those what-if's have come true; all in the past six weeks, in fact. But we have survived.

The biggest what-if -- the What-If of losing one of my kids, the What-If that rise up in my nightmares so vivid that I wake up crying --  has not come to fruition. And for that, I need to remember to practice gratitude. I am practicing being thankful for what hasn't happened and not focus on what has.

And so tonight, at 1:53 a.m. on my first night off in four days, I am thankful for the day. I'm thankful for the hour or so that the kids played outside, thankful for four girls taking pictures of our ice storm, thankful for Natalie and John running happily in the hoop building, thankful for John splashing in every mud puddle he could find. I am even thankful for the emotional storms we have endured that taught me to be grateful for big messes from little people, and know that the mud washes off but the memory of their laughs while getting filthy lasts forever.

I am thankful, even though I now have Lainie in the bathroom with a stomach flu, even though I am praying her version of this illness doesn't spike a huge fever like it did for Maggie, praying that if it does cause a fever, that her medication will keep her seizures away.

I am thankful, even though I also have John at my feet sleeping on the basement floor, because after bedtime, he started coughing and is pretty rough. Delsym and a xopenex breathing treatment helped for about three hours, but he needed a second treatment at the four hour mark. And so I pray for no fever for him, no seizure for him, that his breathing is eased, that we can stay away from the ER tonight.

And I pray for my own heart, that some day these typical childhood illnesses won't make me so damn scared.  I pray that I can stop being frustrated, and can some day understand how one boy can go from the running through the mud puddles to struggling to breathe and twitching all over in a matter of hours.




Sunday, January 15, 2017

EEG day

Little man handled his EEG like, well, a boy. He was mad that they kept washing his hair, but once that part was done, he was fine with it. He definitely liked the pancake breakfast afterwards much better, loved the train that runs on the ceiling, and played with the light up magic ceiling before we left for home.








Sunday, January 8, 2017

Stay awake

This is how we keep a three-year-old awake until midnight:






We are staying at the Ronald McDonald House for the first time, and oh my gosh, it is paradise. There is an entire basement where we could let John run around until his midnight bedtime. It even had free arcade games and so much more.

Ironically, now that it is midnight, the boy won't fall asleep. It's  going to be a harsh morning in 3 1/2 hours!

Kansas City bound

A year to the day of John's first seizure, we are headed back to Children's. In the morning, he will have an EEG that will decide whether he goes on medication daily or not. And so -- we are heading to KC early to make it a fun time. We have to keep him awake until midnight, so we are heading to Cabelas, the candy store, a long supper. We are staying at the Ronald's McDonals house and brought tractors, hot wheels, books, a computer, and a farm set, all to help keep little man awake.

Today I'm not praying for anything but a safe trip. I'm ready for answers, not matter what they are.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Healing

Healing from a break takes months. At first, it hurts even if you don't move. You can't use the broken limb. Everyone babies that wound, protects it from further damage. Slowly, so slowly you don't even notice it, it stops hurting constantly. It's so slow, you are almost surprised one day to find out you can move without pain. But still, you baby it, nurture it, so it doesn't get rebroken.

That's where I'm at -- freshly mended, functional, no longer hurting every day, but so afraid of new injuries.

I have had to work hard to heal this time around. I have started taking supplements that help boost serotonin production, another to help my adrenal gland, another to help my thyroid, another to help my hormone regulation. And they worked, within just a matter of days.

I have started counseling, talking through things I don't want to talk about. Our big two goals is to work on me being a little more selfish, and a little less shame-filled.

Even posting these is a selfish act, in my mind. Talking about my pain is selfish. Others are hurting worse than me; why should I share my pain and make the assumption that somehow my hurt is more important? But writing is therapeutic, more than talking, especially when I'm writing to no audience, when I think maybe 1-3 people will read this. And so, I'm being selfish, and I'm writing, and I'm publishing it, for me.

And shame. Shame I didn't catch the fever, shame I couldn't stop the seizure, shame I didn't know he was getting sick. And shame for not being only overjoyed that he survived. Shouldn't survival be enough? Shame at doing anything but focusing on my family. And shame for years of other events, all accumulating to a fragile being.

And so, two months after my world was rocked once again, we are taking some steps forward, weary, afraid, hesistant, but steps just the same.

We learned this week that neither Jay nor I, nor Lainie, carries the genetic markers for epilepsy. Obviously, our kids have a genetic predisposition for atypical, severe febrile seizures. It doesn't decrease the risk any. But it does mean that in a year or so, they will once again attempt to take Lainie off her anti-epileptic medication. We will again test the waters and see if she can make it through a fever and illness without seizing. That's one event, one fear, that I'm placing in a nice little box, closing with industrial-strength duct tape, and shoving in the back of the closet to deal with when it gets here.

And on Monday morning, John has an EEG. That will tell us whether he goes on a daily anti-epileptic medication. It will tell us the likelihood that he will have another seizure. That event is not far enough away to shove in a box in the closet, so I am focusing on coping with that, preparing for it, walking through it.

But, I know I do not walk alone. I know God will be at my side, carrying me when I need it. These lyrics from a song by Citizen Way hit close to home:
"These are the thing That I need to pray
‘Cuz I can’t find peace any other way
I’m a mess underneath
And I’m just too scared to show it
Everything’s not fine And I’m not okay
But it’s nice to know I can come this way

When I’m with You
I feel the real me finally breaking through
It’s all because of You Jesus
Anytime anywhere any heartache
I’m never too much for You to take
There’s only love
There’s only grace
When I’m with You"

 And while I need to know God's on my side, that He isn't being a hateful, vengeful being, that he has my back, I also need a physical being who also has my back. I'm leaning heavily on Jay right now, and I'm so glad he is there to hold me up, to force me to take those first steps, to encourage me when I want to curl up into a ball and block out the world. He and I have been through a lot, it seems, over the past 17 years. I just hope we can get to the sunny side of life for awhile and climb out of these shadows for good.