What a Relief!

Our visit to the neurologist today was very enlightening. I not only learned about Karissa's seizure episode, but of my own as well. After repeating the story of Karissa's recent seizure to the doctor, I gave him my background. Well, it turns out, after about 28 years, I discover that I did not have epilepsy as a child. I was misdiagnosed, as was probably more common back then, in the dark ages, when research and studies were still being conducted and they didn't know as much as they do now. The doctor today said that they now know that there are no epileptic seizures that are caused by trauma (all of mine were). What I had, and what Karissa has, is a genetic predisposition to have seizures, or convulsions, as a result of trauma in combination with either breath holding, which she probably did, or passing out. He said that she could have a few more over the next few years, but would probably grow out of it after that, as I did. Her EEG was perfectly normal and there is no real harm done by the seizures. It sounds like the greatest "harm" done was from the phenobarbital that I took as a child for my seizures. He said there is no need for any medication, but that I didn't look too affected by it (he doesn't know me that well!:)

I feel much lighter now, not having to worry about Karissa anymore, and not having to put on all my medical forms that I had epilepsy. In some of my own recent studies of it, I found it is a brain disorder, which doesn't sound good to me. So, maybe Karissa's seizure wasn't so bad after all. I was able to uncover a part of me that I didn't know! Thanks for all the inquiries about Karissa!

COLD!

We're living the usual Michigan January. We've had a nice covering of snow for a while and some good, solid, cold weather. Right now, it's 16 with a wind chill of -4. We took advantage of the holiday on Monday and the sunshine (not too many of those days around here) and went sledding. It was Karissa's first real time going and Austin's as well, though he only went once while on my lap. Even though it was pretty windy and cold at the top of the hill, we all had a great time.

Karissa preferred sliding on her bum the first few rounds. Victoria enjoyed every second of it.

Here's Austin's first and last time going. He did have fun, so I'm not sure why he didn't want to go again. I think he was just frozen to my hip.

Karissa ended up letting Jason pull her down, but she also rode down with him in the yellow one, which is faster.
Austin and Karissa enjoy watching the fire, luckily we have two screens to separate them from it!

A Princess Party

Karissa has been talking about her princess birthday party since Victoria had her party in October. We had a typical party for our family. We started out with dancing and games with music (musical chairs, hot potato, freeze dance). Then we made a craft. The girls got to glue and decorate these little castles. (These were also the pattern for the invitations.) This was Karissa's.They played with some dress-ups and jewelery in the basement. Karissa is the second youngest, the girl in the Belle costume is the youngest, but you can see that Karissa is taking after her mom's height pattern at this age, being shortest by a long shot.
We had some castle cake and ice cream. Unlike the last time I made a castle cake, I decided to go for the recipe that only called for one cake mix. The castle doesn't look quite as grand, but it held up better and we don't have quite as many left-overs.

Luckily, Karissa's favorite colors are red and pink, since that's what is all around with Valentine's Day coming up.
Karissa enjoyed opening her presents and having a party of her own. It was a great party!

Another Birthday "Treat"

Exactly one week after Karissa's visit to the ER, because of the sickness which started on her birthday, she bumped heads with a girl at Victoria's girl scout troop and had a seizure. After looking pale for about a half hour afterwards and being really hungry, she seemed pretty good, in fact, downright grumpy and tired as it was her bedtime. She was acting normal the next day, so my only concern was the seizure, not that there was any damage caused by the bump. Since I had epilepsy as a child and most of my seizures were results of a blow to the head, I was concerned that she had developed epilepsy since her last EEG (she had that done two years ago when we were in the ER for the dehydration then). Today, we went to the neurologist and she got to have anther EEG performed on her, lucky girl! They said she was the best 4-year-old they'd ever had, sitting so still for the procedure. We don't get to consult with the doctor until the 26th, but I'm sure if there are any major problems that we need to know, they'll let us know sooner. What a great year this has turned out to be! We're not even half way through January and Karissa has already been to the ER, the doctor two times, and the neurologist! Here's hoping for a better two weeks coming up!

Happy Birthday, Finally!

Karissa's birthday this year was put off for 6 days due to the fact that she woke up on her birthday throwing up. Obviously, it was the same thing Austin and Victoria had on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and of course it had to come on her birthday, five days later. She spent all of her birthday and the following day either throwing up or sleeping. Earlier in the day she knew it was her birthday, but I don't think she knew or even cared anymore later on. Luckily, the weather was bad, so we delayed leaving Colorado one more day, which enabled her to rest a little more. We took this picture before we left, hoping to have her in it with her grandparents for her birthday, but she didn't want to be in it. The two day drive back wasn't much better. She slept most of the time and, lucky for us, didn't throw up in the car at all! She actually didn't have any problems on Saturday, though she didn't eat much. Unlucky for the gas station and store owners, she did have problems at those places on Sunday.

When we got home, she laid right down on the couch, not excited like her brother and sister to see her things. When she got out of bed at 11:15 on Monday, I knew there was a problem , especially when she threw up again. I took her to the doctor and they sent us to the ER to get an IV. They were great and got us in real quick. We only had to stay about 4 1/2 hours. They let us go after she ate 3 Popsicles, but left the hep lock in just in case she had more problems.

There were no more problems, so the next day I took her back to the doctor and they out her hep lock and that day she recovered by eating the "recovery foods". Here's a picture with her hep lock before we went to get it taken out. (I never got pictures of her in the hospital two years ago, so here's a happier version of that.)

By Wednesday night, I figured she was recovered enough to have cake and open her presents, I think she was ready too. Poor thing!
Notice the Christmas decorations in the background still. It was so crazy with this sickness when we got home, I just barely got everything unpacked the other day and am still taking down decorations! Happy 4th Birthday, Karissa!