Isabella's Hospital Stay

it's been a crazy couple of weeks. tom was out of the country, my mom had just arrived on a weds afternoon to help while he was away. we had put the girls to bed and were sitting on the couch looking at pictures and starting to watch "American Idol". I thought I should go up and check on isabella. i went in to the room to find her having a seizure - a big one. i gave her the "emergency" med we have for her, but she wasn't coming out of the seizure, so i called the neurologist. he sent us to the children's er. i was so thankful my mom was here since it was 10:30p. i grabbed a few things quickly and took isabella to the er. by the time we arrived at the er, she was acting more like herself again. the drs checked her out, put an iv in, and we waited for a room to be admitted to. around 3:30a, we were taken to her room. the nurse asked us more questions, got us settled in the room, and informed me that the lab would be coming around 4 (which by this time was in about 10 minutes) to draw blood. the nurse also let me know that isabella would go for an mri at 6a!. the lab tech came at 4:15a, drew blood, and left. isabella fell asleep not long after that. i fell asleep sitting in the chair next to her bed sometime after 5. at 6, they came to take isabella to radiology for her mri.


i watched my baby get put under anesthesia for the second time in less than 4 months. i cried, and was sent back to the room to wait for her. she was back in about 45 minutes. it took her a long time to wake up, but we couldn't be sent back to her regular room until she did. poor thing, was so sleepy. the neurologist came by to see us. he had the results before we went back to our room, and everything was clear again. thank you, God! we were taken back to isabella's room where she slept for several hours. they were planning to set her up for an eeg that afternoon, but she was completely hysterical the two times they tried. i broke down in tears too. i had never seen her like this. we figured out later that she may have been reacting badly to the anesthesia.

so, i could continue to go into detail about the whole crazy time that we were there, but i will try to summarize here as i don't want to leave you with a novel! not this time, at least!!

isabella ended up staying at the hospital for 6 days. she did end up getting set up for the 48-hour eeg again on saturday (we were admitted on weds). the neurologist had almost sent us home friday afternoon, but izzy had a bad night friday night with what we thought were several seizures. the eeg showed that the seizures are still coming from the right side of her brain. she is still diagnosed with complex partial seizures (a form of epilepsy). the neurologist did not feel that this was a setback and that instead, it's just part of the process in figuring out the right medicine, the right dose. isabella was sent home on two new antiseizure meds and a new backup med for any long or cluster of seizures.

we were so thankful to come home and sleep in our own beds with no interruptions of nurses in the room, the doors slamming next to our room. we were so thankful to the nurses who were so helpful and amazing at making us feel comforted during that time. and, we are praying that these new meds keep isabella seizure-free.

The Great White North

we spent about 3 weeks up north visiting nana and aunt jen and our cousins jack, lukas, and sophie. we got to celebrate nana's 70th birthday, play in lots of snow, play with our texas and ohio cousins, and meet our cousin sophie for the first time. it was so fun. here are a few pictures of all the fun we had.

5 years

yesterday was emma's 5th birthday. i can't believe that she is five years old already. i still remember the day she arrived - after 11 weeks of bed rest (8 in the hospital) waking up at 5 am not feeling right. After a few hours when the dr was able to come back to my room, she examined me and i was 5 cm dliated!! She said, "You're having a baby today." i started crying knowing i was only 33 weeks, and tom had left the hospital, and just plain being scared. all turned out fine. emma was born at 3 am, 7 weeks early. she had to stay in nicu for a day and in the special care nursery for 2 weeks. you would never know that she was a preemie when you see her today!

anyways, back to today . . . we had a great celebration for her 5th birthday. emma and mommy went to starbucks for a juice and then headed to sweet & sassy where emma got a mini-makeover. he was made over into a snow princess. later we met pappa and isabella for lunch at red robin. sthey sang "happy birthday" to her and brought her a fruit cup and fruit smoothie (to accommodate our food allergies.) :)after lunch, emma went with pappa to build-a-bear where she made a hello kitty stuffed doll and rode on the carousel. they also visited the disney store, and then they went to the park to "hunt for bears." they headed home for dinner, cake, and presents. emma kept asking, "are there more presents?" hmmm, i think i used to ask the same question at that age!!


we are so thankful to having emma in our lives. she is a light in our lives, and such a joy. she is so sweet, independent, creative, funny, and so loving. yes, i have to admit, the 11 weeks of bed rest were totally worth it!

wired up - day #3 - cps

cps . . .complex partial seizures. we came home this afternoon after two long days at the hospital. when the dr first came to see us this morning, isabella still had not shown any activity. but during lunch, she ended up having one. i almost missed it, but caught her near the end and pressed the buzzer several times to let them know she was having an episode. the dr came in and reviewed the tape and the eeg printout . . . it was a seizure. they are coming from her right temporal lobe, and are complex partial seizures (epilepsy). isabella will stay on her meds for now, and we will go back to the dr in about a month to talk more. we will also continue to pursue some of the holistic/naturopathic options we have also been pursuing. the dr said that about 60% of kids with these types of seizures outgrow them. we are praying she is in the 60%. thank you to everyone for your prayers, support, and encouragement.

here are some pictures of isabella's last day . . . including her rocker look she had after the took off the wires.

wired up - day #2

we made it through another day at the hospital. isabella is such a trooper. she does not seem to be bothered one bit by all the wires and stuff attached to her. she spent the day running around the room just as if she wasn't hooked up to anything. she has not slowed down one bit! last night was pretty rough . . . she barely slept and was crying a lot last night. but she did take a great nap today. we also had several visitors, which was fun for all of us. isabella has been full of smiles and winning the hearts of all the nurses and doctors here.


the neurologists talked with us and said that no abnormal brain activity has shown up on the eeg yet, and we have not seen isabella have any episode either. of course, we don't want her to be having seizures, but it would be helpful if she would have one of these episodes that she;s been having so that they could track that time and definitively tell us what is happening when these episodes occur.


the current plan is that we are to be released tomorrow, but if she still shows no activity by the end of the 48 hours, we aren't sure if they would keep us longer. we certainly don't want to be here any longer than necessary, but we do hope to leave with more information at the end of this.

it took a long time again for isabella to fall asleep, but we're hopeful that she'll have a better night of rest tonight. hope you enjoy more pictures of our stay at the hospital!

wired up

isabella was admitted to the hospital today for her 48-hour video eeg. for those who don't know . . . back in sept, she started having these strange episodes where she looked almost like she was going to faint. the pediatrician could not find anything wrong with her. she started having some other symptoms and more episodes, so we found ourselves at the neurologist's office. he said that it was seizures. we were rushed in the next day for an mri and a one-hour eeg. both showed up clear. so, we are now doing this extended eeg in the hopes that we'll learn more about what is going on with our little peanut.
isabella did great getting hooked up with all these wires. they had to use some very sticky glue, which smelled awful. she was a real trooper for the whole thing. she is able to move around the room, as long as someone is running right alongside her, as the wires are hooked up to this box in a bag (looks like a camera bag). her head is bandaged up so that she won't start pulling at the wires. she looks adorable!


she had some visitors today, which helped to pass the rest of the afternoon and evening quickly. she was so tired tonight since we didn't get a nap today, but she was also very wired once bed time rolled around from all the activity and the new surroundings. it took a little longer to get her to sleep. but, she is now peacefully sleeping, and hopefully will rest soundly all night.

will try to post more with an update from what the doctor and video techs saw on the eeg since she's been hooked up. thanks for all the support!

Hot Pink Cast

well, we headed back to the dr today because emma was still unable to walk as of this morning. we were sent to an orthopaedic doctor who felt that she needed a cast. so, here she is with the hot pink cast that she chose and the funny shorts they had to give her since the pants she had were too tight to come off with a cast on! she was not too happy when he first put the cast on,but after getting home, she seemed okay with it.

i also had to add this other Halloween picture from the other day with the matching halloween pajamas.