"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Friday, July 6, 2012

The Battle Continues


After my last post, Peyton continued to have 4 – 5 seizures a day.  Last week was quite eventful.  She was a little crabby last weekend and I just attributed it to the seizure increase, because that would make anyone crabby.  Last Monday morning I was at work and Peyton’s nurse called to tell me Peyton was screaming at the top of her lungs and nothing would calm her.  Ed was close by so he went back home and he couldn’t calm her either.  The screaming continued till I got home that evening and then every time she would nod off to sleep, she would jerk herself awake and start screaming again – I’m talking loud blood curdling horror movie screams.  Needless to say, no one got any sleep.  On Tuesday, we took her in to see the pediatrician and she had a sore throat and a fever.  No strep, just viral.  As thankful as we were for the source of her discomfort, there wasn’t much we could do for her except Tylenol.  She screamed on and off until Wednesday afternoon and finally she calmed down and is almost back to her normal self, just still running a low grade fever in the mornings. 

Peyton had an appointment with the dietitian last week and we have made some adjustments to her diet.  Her BMI is too high and her weight is outpacing her height.  Hopefully, the adjustments will help with the seizures and we will get some long seizure free stretches again. 

We have been seeing some subtle movements while she is falling asleep & waking up.  She will tense up and then release, tense up then release.  This is reminiscent of Infantile Spasms (although much more subtle than what she had in the beginning) so I contacted Dr. Tennison (her neurologist) yesterday.  I emailed a video of these strange movements.  He watched it and agreed the movements were really subtle, but something we need to keep an eye on.  For now, we are increasing her Vitamin B-6 to see if this will do anything helpful.  Sometimes, it feels like we are just shooting in the dark trying to find solutions.  Regardless, we will try this and if things continue then we will contact him again and discuss other options (not sure what these options are, but determined not to focus on that till we give this a week or two to see if things settle down).  If you haven’t read my past posts and don’t know what Infantile Spasms are, you can Google it and be as horrified as we are that she might be having them again.  There was a time back when all the seizures started that she was having Infantile Spasms but they were quickly controlled with Prednisolone and we haven’t seen them since and hope to never ever see them again.  Please say a prayer that this isn’t what is going on.  All Seizures are horrible, but these are especially horrible.

Peyton has a stander and she is in it for about an hour 5 – 6 days a week.  There is some concern over her ankles and feet so we went this week and had her fitted for AFO’s (Ankle Foot Orthosis)  These will help her stand and make progress towards walking eventually.  It was cool to watch them make the casts for the AFO’s and she did so good!!  I am excited about getting the AFO’s because I am all for anything that will help her progress and develop.

She has a new favorite toy – it’s a lady bug toy with crinkly wings and she LOVES it.  It is the first time we have seen her use both hands to play with anything.  She even falls asleep at night with it tucked under her little arm.  It is the sweetest thing.  She is still giving us smiles daily and we are hoping for some giggles soon!!

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