Skip to main content

Better Living Through Chemistry

After four days of being on Keppra, it seems that we have a handle on the seizures! Day two he was still seizing so the neuros recommended doubling his dose. I played it safe and upped the dose to 1.ml instead of the 1.4ml. Yesterday he had his EEG. Of course it had to be during one of the biggest snowstorms of the year, and super early in the morning to boot. However, Leo handled having 25 plugs stuck on his head with good grace and we got out the hospital in a decent amount of time. We haven't gotten the full results of that yet (not like we care anymore) but his PCP briefly dropped me a message saying there was good news from his EEG. So either he showed no propensity for seizures, or if so, they are ones that can be controlled. That's my guess anyway to what the "good news" entail.
My theory, based on mom instict, is that he is teething something fierce and that it's causing the low-grade fever and seizures. He has a very low seizure threshold, so even when his temp is slightly elevated he can start to seize. Normal kids have a high seizure threshold, though almost all can seize after a certain temp (106...) Our little dude seizes at 99. So it seems to me that even though he is still warm, he hasn't seized in two days. Thank you Keppra?
Today was a good day in our snowed in little cabin. The little lion got his mane trimmed and big sister practiced her photography. So sorry for all the pics, but I couldn't resist sharing some of the cuteness! We also had a special vistor, one that likes to come by and look in our windows...See the last photos..Love to all and thank you so much for all your love and prayers this week!













Comments

  1. Calories and CoffeeFebruary 3, 2011 at 8:39 PM

    That's great news! I love all the photos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LisaFebruary 3, 2011 at 8:58 PM

    So glad the seizures are under control. Great pics, thanks for sharing...keep them coming :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lydia CarrFebruary 3, 2011 at 9:21 PM

    Beautiful pictures. Glad to hear that Leo's doing better. ~Taylor

    ReplyDelete
  4. Matushka AnnaFebruary 4, 2011 at 9:37 AM

    How wonderful they were that easy to control! I love the pictures - Leo is such a cutie! The owl is amazing too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. MannaFebruary 4, 2011 at 10:44 AM

    Thank you for the wonderful news and the great pictures! Glad to see that Nika is still such a ham.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownFebruary 5, 2011 at 10:48 AM

    What a hoot!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michelle M.February 5, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    I love that second picture. You can just tell that he loves you to pieces. It literally brought tears to my eyes.
    I am so glad to hear that his seizures are under control. I pray they stay that way.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2011 at 11:21 PM

    Love all the pictures. Nika and Leo are so cute together. The kids and I have been doing some bird watching lately. It's remarkably simple, yet remarkably fun. You have incredible mommy instinct. Helped me through a lot of sicknesses back in the day. Love Marcy

    ReplyDelete
  9. SunshineFebruary 11, 2011 at 7:41 AM

    They look so sweet together.I can see how much Nika loves Leo. His little mane looks great! Glad you have a beautiful place to live. Is that a snowy owl!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

With Mixed Feelings

So for the past couple weeks my feed has been filled with the "back to school" and "end of summer" and "beginning of parental freedom from their annoying offspring" photos. It's ok, I totally get it. Another year, another back to school pic, another notch in the door jamb, and another chapter of growth and development with junior. Look at him go! Or not, as the case may be for many children. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease control and Prevention) one in six children has one...a developmental disability. A stamp of "not normal" across their foreheads. A number. A check mark in a box. My kid is one of them. I heard a brief segment on NPR that enticingly started out with the title of developmental delays on the rise, a 17% increase over the last twelve years. And though I turned up the volume the segment only talked about how it's probably only due to poverty, and it's only the upper classes that actually pursue diagnosis...
34 comments
Read more

Putting The Lion Back Into The Wild

I'm actually home tonight while the 'boys" are at the PICU for what could be, maybe, possibly, our last night. It's almost hard to believe that we could go home. It's like those animals who have been in captivity who are finally let out almost don't know what to do, and often cower in fear and confusion in their cages. We would be cowering, but that sounds like it takes too much energy. We are completely exhausted after ten days of this shunt malfunction marathon.  Yesterday afternoon Leo had the hopefully final surgery to fix his shunt. The Neurosurgeon replaced all the tubing and tunneled a whole new channel for it as far away from his lungs as possible. During which he discovered that the connection between the tubing and the shunt valve was leaking and welling up CSF as he was examining it. Also his old tubing was inserted pretty high under his breastbone which often can jeopardize the integrity of the surrounding tissues; in other words, the plu...
8 comments
Read more

Kinda Like 'Nam.

First off, sorry about the disjointed nature of the posting from yesterday. I was updating via text messegaing from my phone and because the service is patchy in the hospital not only were the posts chopped up but they were frequently out of order. You have to be a sleuth to figure it out. On the other hand, I guess it was a direct reflection of what we were experiencing! Between getting little bits of info and there, we had no clue what was going on. This is what we have been able to piece together since yesterday. The surgery itself was a definite success, though there were a few surprises. One of which being that when they took out Leo's shunt of 8 months they discovered that it was not working. Huh??? He never showed any symptoms of shunt failure and brain compression, so what the heck? In between the sobering list of items now holding risks for our guy, the nuero surgeon dropped this little bombshell on us. Does that ...
18 comments
Read more