Stinky Seizure and Summer Fun

This morning did not quite turn out how I anticipated.  At about 3:35 a.m. Madi woke me up by throwing up.  Thank God she was sleeping next to me, or I may not have heard her!  I brought her in the kitchen and the gagging/throwing up wasn't stopping.  I also noticed she was staring off to the right.  Crud.  It was a seizure.  I held her and gave her a dosage of her rescue med (at the new increased dosage) and it didn't stop.  She then moved in to repetitive convulsions in her lower body.  I then gave her a second dosage and the convulsions finally started tapering off and she fell asleep.  I woke her up about 45 minutes later to check on her (per what the doctor told me when I called to ask if we should go in) and she was able to tell me her name and the such.  We moved back to bed and I had her sleep on my chest.  Of course I didn't fall back to sleep too well because I was worried,  but she slept and that is what matters.  When she woke up she was a bit dizzy seeming, shaky, and threw up not too long after being awake, so I thought she may have the flu or something, but after eating she slowly returned to her normal spunky self.  I think maybe all the medication on an empty stomach may have caused the shaking/dizziness/throwing up this morning.  We went to the doctor this afternoon to have her checked out and also to have him look at her right leg, which has seemed to retain some fluids and has been slightly puffy since earlier in the week.  He said to keep her out of her HKFOs and put some heat on it and see what happens.  She has grown, again, and her HKFOs aren't fitting her right, again.  I've noticed her right leg especially popping out.  I think the pressure and reduction in circulation because of how they are fitting is causing some swelling and water retention. Thankfully we have an appointment to get them fixed on Wednesday!   He also checked her urine.  The initial tests didn't show anything too concerning, but they are culturing it.  We are also working on scheduling a head and full spine x-ray to make sure everything looks good there.  I plan to go to bed early tonight and try to get some sleep.  Please pray for no seizures for Madi!  We have a follow up with her neurologist coming up and I have lots of questions for him ;).  I'm also concerned about the fact that she had never seized, ever, until 4 days after having the MMR vaccine.  On the CDC website, ongoing seizures is listed as a rare side effect of the MMR vaccine.  We had gotten the vaccine in hopes of all going to India together, but because of the onset of seizures, that wasn't possible. 

On a positive note, we have been having a blast outside.  The pool is still a little cold, but it doesn't slow the kiddos down at all!  We slightly heat the spa so it's a comfortable temperature, and that helps.  Here are some photos of our pool fun...

Ready for a dip!

 

Fun in the sun

 

Cooling down

 

Our new floaty from Costco... it has a little propeller to push the kiddos gently around the pool and they love it!

 

 

In other news, we have something very big weighing on our hearts.  We aren't ready to share the details yet, but please keep us in your prayers as we make some big decisions.  

 

Our Latest Blessing and a Madi Update

We have had some amazing blessings lately that I just had to share.  One of our missional communities at Church has decided to target orphans and widows and do mission work in those areas.  Because our adoption falls in that category, they have come beside us to support us in the last stretch of fundraising efforts.  We have a Peter Piper Pizza fundraiser coming up (more details on that soon!) that they are helping us organize and plan, and of course we also have our big garage sale coming up April 20th and 21st.  Last night their group came to help us organize and sort through some of the goodies we have received.  They were a HUGE help, and it was such a blessing for us!  Additionally, a few people bought some of our sale items, and then gave us generous over-payments to help us along.  Thanks to them, our garage is caught up on (until we get more donations in :)) AND we are $71 closer to reaching our goal.  WOOO HOOO! 

We also got a check in the mail from one of my very best friends and her hubby as a donation for two of our fundraising bracelets.  They were very generous and giving, and their thoughtfulness really touched us!  Thanks to them, we are an additional $50 closer to meeting our fundraising goal.  YEAH!  We are SO close now!!

It is such an amazing blessing to have so many loving, caring, and selfless people in our lives.  God has truly blessed us beyond measure!  When times are hard (like they were with Madi in the hospital this last week), their words of encouragement, prayers, and love keep us going strong!  If you are one of these people in our lives, thank you for walking this journey with us and being such a great support.




In other news, we saw the pediatrician today for a follow-up to our hospital stay and Madi's seizure. The doctor said he's pretty sure the seizure was not from the UTI (the urologist also agrees that it most likey was not from that) since she was not symptomatic for the UTI, etc...  He did feel, though, it could have been from the MMR vaccine or from getting hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and basically said there will be no way for us to know for sure which one caused it.  The MMR is a much harder vaccine on the system because the rubella portion contains a live strain.  Of course, they don't have them separately, so the only option is the combo vaccine or not at all.  We won't give her any more MMR vaccines, for obvious reasons, but I am torn on what to do with the other vaccines she really should get before going to India.  Right now our options are not to take her, to give her the remaining 4 vaccines she needs to be covered to go (1 Hep A, 1 DTAP, and 2 polio (spread out by about 6 months each), or go without being fully protected with the ones that are recommended for India travel.  Her pediatrician feels she would do fine with these vaccines since she's had them before (except polio) and none of them are live.  He also feels that, as long as I bring her seizure medication so I can stop it, it would be safe to take her, even if she does end up needing to go in the hosital there.  I'm not convinced yet, though, on doing any more vaccines, and plan to talk it through with our naturopathic doctor about it on Thursday.  I'd hate to leave her behind, but I'd hate to do anything that could cause her long-term issues as well.  Please pray for us as we make this decision.

Unfortunately, when they did the EEG, they saw that she is predispositioned to seizures.  They think that there is a good possibility this could all happen again.  Hopefully it would be few and far between (or never, which I am praying for!!), and not a regular occurrence (which would require seizure medications and extra care).  Either way, they gave me dissolvable tablets I can put in her cheek if she is seizing again so that I can stop the seizure myself.  Please join us in praying that this was a one-time thing and that it won't keep happening.  I did purchase a video baby monitor to put my mind at rest.  I kept going in the room when she was sleeping and made any noise at all, so being able to see her and know that she is safe will give me a lot of necessary piece of mind. 

That's all the updates for now, hopefully we will know more from India and our adoption paperwork soon!!