Madi is officially 8 months old today and what a week it has been!
First thing Monday morning we headed out to Montreal to visit our friend Joan. Made a pitstop in Saratoga Springs for a John Meyer concert. I didn't stay for the concert, since it was past Madison's bedtime but did get to meet and greet him- cool guy, very tall. We had 3 extra tickets so we decided to play benefactors and walked around looking for someone we liked to give them the tickets. I saw 3 girls who were super excited to get VIP tickets in the orchestra and it turned out 2 of them were pregnant too so they were really grateful.
We got to Montreal Tuesday and spent the afternoon roaming around Old town. It took us a while since most of the city is under construction and our GPS had suddenly lost its ability to understand English.
Wednesday we visited the Biodome and loved the penguins. At lunchtime our day and our trip went spiraling down...
We were about to order lunch when I noticed that Madi's hand was jerking. she was having another seizure. She was asleep so we woke her up. Waited 5 minutes and gave her 5 mg of Diastat. Repeated the dose since the first one didn't seem to work. About 15 min in the seizure we realized it wasn't stopping and headed to the nearest hospital. The convulsions had spread from the right arm to the right leg, to the left leg, left arm and finally the her face and were causing her to blink rhythmically with the convulsions.
My attempts to find the ER were helped by an administrator who found me in the hallway, ordered me on a wheelchair and got me there in no time. About 8 doctors and nurses surrounded Madison who had been seizing for about 25 minutes already. Their attempts to stop the seizure were in vain. Madison was in what is known as Status Epilepticus- a state of constant seizure. They kept on poking and probing and shooting drugs in her little body. Finally 55 minutes after the seizure had begun she relaxed and went into deep, drug induced sleep.
We were transferred to a pediatric hospital where we spent the night. Welcome back to socialism!- no diapers or anything provided by the hospital. Three beds to a room and they weren't even monitoring her heart rate or O2 saturation. The nurses came in like prison guards with flashlights every 2 hours to check on her. Every time they woke her up it took me another hour and a half to put her back to sleep. Around 4 am she started screaming like a banchee. It took me half an hour to convince the nurses that something is wrong with her and she is not just throwing a tantrum. It took them another 20 min to get her some tylenol.
Our road trip ended even more prematurely because the drugs we needed were not available on that side of the border. They could not give her a 10 mg Diastat for the ride home because she didn't weigh enough. Even after our doctor faxed a prescription to be filled Trileptal, an AED, was nowhere to be found.
So we headed back home.
When the guard on the border said "Welcome home" I said " thank god for Capitalism!
We are now back home. Madi is doing well. As well as she can between being drugged up, having 3 teeth come in, and fighting some kind of mysterious infection.
I hope this all ends well!
E
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Happenings
Things happen and then they go in the past just as another experience.
some moments I want to live in forever some I can't wait to forget.
Madison had two more seizure and another fruitless stay in the hospital. Last Thursday was seizure#5- right arm, eventually spread to her face and her mouth started twitching. the Diastat didn't work right away so we went to the ER.Of course the seizure stopped when we were getting out of the cab- lasted about 20 min.The nurse made fun of us that we were so calm- we had seen it all before, no need to fret. They took her BP and temperature and held us for 5 hours to wait for an ambulance to transfer us to Beth Israel for another 24hr EEG. The results- They have no idea what is causing the seizures. We knew just as much before we spend another tiring night in the hospital.
The good news- we made it to club getaway so I got to waterski again(doing much better now) and finally get into a backend split and catch it twice.
My first catch in two years was scary and I was so nervous i felt nauseous on the board. But the second was perfect and I was so happy to fly again. That is the feeling I want to feel forever.
Anyway in between crawling, standing, cutting teeth and babbling up a storm Madison had another small seizure yesterday morning- only left arm diastat kicked in in about 4 min and the whole seizure was about 12-15 min- she was smiling at us and didn't seem disturbed about it.
Enough about the bad moments!
Madison went on the swing for the first time and loved it. Yesterday we went to see the animals in the petting Zoo and spend half the day with auntie Astrid and Vania. Madison loves company she would play with anyone who comes close.
She had a great round of giggles with Maria( our cleaning lady) who was trying to teach her to count in Spanish.
she is just the happiest baby. Obviously she's gotten very good at forgetting the bad moments right away.
E
some moments I want to live in forever some I can't wait to forget.
Madison had two more seizure and another fruitless stay in the hospital. Last Thursday was seizure#5- right arm, eventually spread to her face and her mouth started twitching. the Diastat didn't work right away so we went to the ER.Of course the seizure stopped when we were getting out of the cab- lasted about 20 min.The nurse made fun of us that we were so calm- we had seen it all before, no need to fret. They took her BP and temperature and held us for 5 hours to wait for an ambulance to transfer us to Beth Israel for another 24hr EEG. The results- They have no idea what is causing the seizures. We knew just as much before we spend another tiring night in the hospital.
The good news- we made it to club getaway so I got to waterski again(doing much better now) and finally get into a backend split and catch it twice.
My first catch in two years was scary and I was so nervous i felt nauseous on the board. But the second was perfect and I was so happy to fly again. That is the feeling I want to feel forever.
Anyway in between crawling, standing, cutting teeth and babbling up a storm Madison had another small seizure yesterday morning- only left arm diastat kicked in in about 4 min and the whole seizure was about 12-15 min- she was smiling at us and didn't seem disturbed about it.
Enough about the bad moments!
Madison went on the swing for the first time and loved it. Yesterday we went to see the animals in the petting Zoo and spend half the day with auntie Astrid and Vania. Madison loves company she would play with anyone who comes close.
She had a great round of giggles with Maria( our cleaning lady) who was trying to teach her to count in Spanish.
she is just the happiest baby. Obviously she's gotten very good at forgetting the bad moments right away.
E
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
First times
Everything has a first time. First time making cookies, first time waterskiing, first date,first day at school. Into each and every first we step with our preconceptions, fears and expectations. But what made us so fearful of the first times. Why does it have that unusual ring to it? Is it because even with all the anxious expectations we don't really know how it will turn out? Is is because we are trying to expect the unexpected? And if we fail do we get up and try again? sometimes we do, more often we say "I can't do it" and give it up for something more ...convenient, like things we know how to do. what we forget is that for everything there was a first time.
Do you remember the first time you tried to walk? Or even stand up? did yo give up and say "It's not for me" . Chances are you didn't. You fell, you scraped yourself and tried again. And again. And again. Until you got strong enough and there you were not only balancing on your two feet but taking a few unsteady steps.It was a victory. and today you walk to work and you don't even notice that you are walking because you are too busy talking on the phone , or reading the paper. That was of course before you can remember and therefore before some serious, gravity abiding grown up told you you should be afraid. Or that you can't do certain things.
The fear of first things is not embedded in our brains, it's planted there by years of social evolution. They used to tell me people can't fly. I used to have dreams about flying. Little did I know that one day ( funnily enough, when I grow up) I will learn to fly. Most of my friends fly. True we don't flip-flap our wings and circle around like birds, but flying on the flying trapeze is still flying. No one ever explained what kind of flying it is that I can' t do . They just said I couldn't.
Anyway back to the first times. Watching Madison crawl, or stand up for the first time makes me think. I love the way she persists at it until she succeeds. She tried sitting for so long and flopped on her face so many times. But that didn't discourage her and now I can't even remember the time she wasn't able to sit. the other day she slept on her tummy for the first time. Today she crawled about a foot. So many things we do for the first time and we get excited and then the everyday hits and in a couple of days we start taking it for granted. Walking, talking, eating, flying. The beauty of it is lost forever. I wish I could treasure that first time excitement forever. Isn't that what we live for? the first times? I am sure that if someone told us while we were in the womb that we are going to do the exact same things and never do anything new we wouldn't have even bothered to come out. What a sad place the world would be if there no first smiles, first words and first kisses.
E
Do you remember the first time you tried to walk? Or even stand up? did yo give up and say "It's not for me" . Chances are you didn't. You fell, you scraped yourself and tried again. And again. And again. Until you got strong enough and there you were not only balancing on your two feet but taking a few unsteady steps.It was a victory. and today you walk to work and you don't even notice that you are walking because you are too busy talking on the phone , or reading the paper. That was of course before you can remember and therefore before some serious, gravity abiding grown up told you you should be afraid. Or that you can't do certain things.
The fear of first things is not embedded in our brains, it's planted there by years of social evolution. They used to tell me people can't fly. I used to have dreams about flying. Little did I know that one day ( funnily enough, when I grow up) I will learn to fly. Most of my friends fly. True we don't flip-flap our wings and circle around like birds, but flying on the flying trapeze is still flying. No one ever explained what kind of flying it is that I can' t do . They just said I couldn't.
Anyway back to the first times. Watching Madison crawl, or stand up for the first time makes me think. I love the way she persists at it until she succeeds. She tried sitting for so long and flopped on her face so many times. But that didn't discourage her and now I can't even remember the time she wasn't able to sit. the other day she slept on her tummy for the first time. Today she crawled about a foot. So many things we do for the first time and we get excited and then the everyday hits and in a couple of days we start taking it for granted. Walking, talking, eating, flying. The beauty of it is lost forever. I wish I could treasure that first time excitement forever. Isn't that what we live for? the first times? I am sure that if someone told us while we were in the womb that we are going to do the exact same things and never do anything new we wouldn't have even bothered to come out. What a sad place the world would be if there no first smiles, first words and first kisses.
E
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