Thursday Update

Ryan still has not had another seizure since the one Tuesday morning. He has been happily playing like normal and has really been such a good kid through this all. He had his EEG this morning and made it look easy. The lady said that they have had adults and older kids who could not sit still or handle the test as well as he did.
He also did much better last night than we had expected. Christopher and I stayed up with him until midnight. The boys had fun wrestling, having pillow fights, and trying to teach Luke how to crawl. Then Ryan was allowed to sleep from 12 to 4 am. It was pretty amazing because Christopher didn't wake up to his alarm to wake Ryan at 4 but at 4 on the nose, Ryan came walking into my room because he needed to go potty, so we didn't mess things up after all. After 4, Christopher took Ryan to Walmart and let him ride a bike around the store and play in the toy aisle. Christopher said he got a few looks from people thinking he was a bad dad for having his kid out at that time of the night. After shopping, the boys went out to breakfast and Ryan decided that he wanted to start his own restaurant called "Daddy and His Big Boy's". He kept saying, "Just me and my Daddy." I guess he really enjoyed all of that one on one time.
Then the boys picked me and Luke up from home and we went over for his EEG. We won't know the results for a few days but he did everything they wanted him to do including staying still, staying awake for awhile and then falling asleep. He was great! Now, Ryan seems a little sleepy but he is still going strong after only getting four hours of sleep. I am sure that he will take a good nap today. I just hope the other kids take a good nap too because I know I'm pretty tired and poor Christopher keeps falling asleep. :)
No tests or appointments scheduled until we see the pediatric neurologist in two weeks.

Update on Ryan

For those of you who haven't heard I wanted to fill you in on Ryan. Monday night I had just drifted off when I awoke to hear Ryan crying a very strange cry at about 10:15. When I walked into his room he was still doing the strange cry and was tossing around in his bed. I automatically thought he was going to get sick so I ran in and scoped him up and carried him to the bathroom. He was unable to stand and when he tried to talk, it didn't make any sense and it seemed like his tongue was swollen. I knew something was wrong so I called Christopher and asked him to hurry home because Ryan was acting so strange. By the time Christopher got home (about 10:30), Ryan was just about back to normal. We were not sure what happened but figured that he must have been sleepwalking.

The next morning at breakfast, Ryan was sitting in his chair across from me eating his cereal when he suddenly stiffened up and fell sideways out of his chair. I grabbed him and handed him to Christopher as he started having (what we now know was) a seizure. His eyes rolled back, his body stiffened and relaxed over and over and he started making a low guttural sound in his throat. Christopher held him and I called 911. The seizure lasted about a minute and then he started doing the same strange cry from the night before. When the firefighters and paramedics arrived he was still crying but was acting more normal except that his balance and speech was off. They told us that unless he had another episode in the ambulance or in the ER, they couldn't do much for him other than to tell us to follow up with our doctor as soon as possible.

After spending the day on pins and needles and trying to keep a constant eye on Ryan, we took him to his appointment at 1:30. After spending almost two hours in the office, the doctor agreed that Ryan had two seizures and that it was a cause for concern. We also discussed my family history of seizures. The doctor scheduled a MRI, an EEG, and gave us the number to make an appointment with a pediatric neurologist at the Children's Hospital in Denver.

Ryan had the MRI last night and was such a courageous little boy. We were put in a little room without a bed or chair for about two hours before they finally put him in a bed and ushered Christopher and I back to the waiting room. Since you have to be completely still for about an hour during the MRI, they had to put him under anesthesia to put him to sleep. He was very cheerful and showed no fear. The hardest part was that he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything before the MRI so it ended up being almost 10 hours before they finally gave him a Popsicle. He was very excited when they wheeled him out of the hospital in a race car wheelchair.

He is doing fine today but a little disappointed that he can not have any sugar until after his EEG tomorrow morning. We will have to keep him awake until midnight tonight and then keep him awake from four in the morning until the EEG at 7:30. It may be very difficult because when Ryan gets tired, he will fall asleep anywhere. Luckily, Christopher is used to working nights and we are trying to plan fun things for them to do.

So far he has gone over 24 hours without a seizure and has been a real trooper through it all. We have a follow up appointment at the Children's Hospital in two weeks.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get the medical tape goo off of skin? I have scrubbed and rubbed but I can't get it all off.

Easter 2009

Easter has always been my favorite holiday but for some reason I wasn't looking forward to this Easter. Maybe it was because I was scared that we would wake up to three inches of snow and since I had been suffering with a sinus infection for the last week, I certainly didn't feel like I was ready for Easter. I'm very thankful that we had a wonderful Easter afterall. We woke up to clouds and a chance of rain but no snow. (Yea! We could wear our Easter dresses without snowboats!!) Drove down to Denver for church and the kids were well-behaved despite the extended length of the Liturgy. Later we went over to Christopher's family's house and Marie set up a "treasure hunt" to find our Easter baskets and a short egg hunt for the kids. We had a large Easter dinner and stayed late talked and enjoying the family.

Here are a few pictures to share:

Sorry they are all so dark. I just love Claire and Luke in the last one.

The Countdown Begins

Now that April is finally here, everyone is getting very excited for our first trip to Disneyland. We will be leaving April 21st. It will be the first time any of the kids will go to Disneyland, fly on an airplane, or really have a big family vacation. Shaylee has a running count of days until we go. As of today, we have 19 days left! Are we absolutely crazy taking four small kids to Disneyland? Possibly, but we will have a large group there to help! :)