Thursday, September 17, 2009

The morning after

Sorry for no details on the September 16 event. Here's how it went; It was a normal night in the Kilgore household, we ate out (Wawa hot dogs for the girls and nada for dear old Dad(he would binge eat later)). We came home to do Rita's homework and finished most of it. For some reason she wanted to save some for Thursday. The girls decided they wanted to get a bath before we read a book and then watched a little TV before bedtime. The water was run (a little warm apparently), the girls tested it an Gracie said it was hot. I ran the cold water until it met the Rita's approval. I SHOULD HAVE CONSULTED THE TEMPERATURE DUCK!! The girls were playing as in the tub as usual as I gathered their clothes. Nothing seemed amiss. When I asked if they were ready to have their hair done and get out, I was greeted with shower curtain closing and come back later we're playing.

As I began the cleanup of the wreckage from the living room play session I heard what sounded like one of the kids falling out of the tub. As I got to the bathroom Rita was holding Grace out of the water. She informed me that Gracie stood up to get something and started seizing. I took her out placed her on the floor and retrieved the Diastat. It took about 3.5 to 4 minutes for the Diastat to work. In the meantime I called 911 just in case. When the ambulance arrived, the recommended we take the trip to St. Marys Hospital (our old stomping grounds from previous seizures).

When we arrived at the hospital it was like we step into the set of Cheers when the cries of Gracie rang out. She was back to herself at this point but postictal(?) not sure of the spelling. We sat for the normal 2 hours talked to the nurses, caught up on the last 6 months with the doctor and nurses and were sent on our merry way.

It is now 6:30 am and the girls are still sleeping. I don't think I will be rushing to wake them this morning.

The streak starts at 1.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

We jinxed ourselves

The streak is over.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Circle of Life

We started out the day with a call in the wee hours of the morning informing us that a beloved aunt has succumb to cancer. If all continues as it is going, we will end the day welcoming a new grand-neice and the start of a new generation to our family.

I am leaving tomorrow evening for Scotland to attend my aunt's funeral. I am trying to prepare the girls for the fact that I will be gone for a few days. Rita is much easier to talk to. Gracie just tells me not to leave her! She grabs on to my arm and tells me with her pouty lips that I am not going without her. I am already wondering what I will miss while I am gone.

Grace started in a new room at day care this week. This is officially pre-school. Within a week she has gone from only counting 1 to 3 to now counting 1 to 10 - she usually gets all of the numbers; sometimes she skips 6 or 7. I wonder how in one week she went from only counting 1 - 2 - 3 to counting all the way to 10.

Grace has had trouble with her colors for a while now. She can tell you which items match and arrange objects by colors quite accurately but she can not tell you the color itself. This is one of the items that has the doctor saying that she may need cognative therapy. We will take her to the Intermediate Unit again in October to be re-evaluated. This morning she blew me away - we were playing with a bunch of little rubber bracelets; matching like colors. She correctly identified red, green, blue and yellow. She didn't get orange right, she called it green but she knew that the orange did not match the real green. Where did this come from? Just two weeks ago, she was getting frustrated trying to name the colors when we played a matching game with the pieces from the Trouble game. These are mostly the same colors and she got them all right today. This child amazes me at times!

Grace also started her dance class this week - tap and ballet in one class. She walked out of the class just beaming. This is something she really wanted to do and she was so pleased to be able to go to dance class. She had gymnastics class this morning. She liked it but not quite as much as her dream dance class!

Grace still fights this diet from time to time and at varying degrees. The battle to keep her eating and to keep her weight on is so worth it. Weeks like this just affirm that we are winning the war over epilepsy!

Sunday, September 06, 2009

We quietly marked yesterday as six months since Gracie's last seizure. For a long time I didn't think we would ever see that milestone. This diet has changed so much for all of us; but especially Gracie.

Gracie is so very excited to be starting dance class on Tuesday. She had started a Daddy and me class last winter but with all of the illnesses, we needed to pull her out of it. This is a full class and she will learn tap and ballet. She beams whenever we talk about it. She dances whenever she hears music.

In addition to dance class, Gracie will also get to start back to Gymnastics. She does this because Rita does gymnastics I think more than because she really wants to do the gymnastics. She did a few parent assisted classes last year but I personally felt she wasn't very in to it. This is also something that we stopped for her last year when her body was just too weak to keep up with it. There is no longer a question of weakness - she is fully able to participate. Actually, this may give Tom a break as the girls were both just climbing all over him - taking turns tackling Daddy! Perhaps, the class will help her expend some of that energy!!

Rita finished her first week of school this past week. She is in first grade this year. I thought she would be a bit apprehensive on her first day. Not at all, she hopped right on the bus and just waved goodbye. She was quite excited to see her school friends again.