Seizure #3

Seizures are looking to be a new part of life.  Yesterday, while talking to my mom on the phone, my dad began to seize for the 3rd time.  God’s been so gracious in his timing of my dad’s seizures because we just happened to still be in the car, in front of my house, seatbelts on, and could drive one minute to be with them.  We arrived just as his seizure finished.  This one lasted about two minutes, and the effects wore off as quickly as they began.  They had just decided to up his anti-seizure med again that day, but he hadn’t had a chance to take it yet, so they were moving in the right direction.  Boy are seizures scary though!  Everybody was quite shaken up, and we decided to stay put and hang out with them for the evening.

From what I read, with every seizure comes a greater likelihood of another, but meds can control most once the level is accurate.  Anytime you have a disturbance or injury in the brain tissue there is a likelihood of developing seizuress.  The doctor said it is likely from the scar tissue that develops around the part of his brain that was operated on.  The scar tissue keeps the typical paths of communication in his brain from functioning properly, and misfires happen, which are what seizures are.

I found a really cool USB medic ID bracelet online that keeps all current medical information stored, and all doctors have to do is plug it into the computer.  We’re gonna order one!  Its amazing what they have now. 

Well, I am exhausted tonight for some reason!  We spent about an hour+ at the swimming pool today, so maybe that wore me out.  But, its quiet in the house, Dudley (our dog) is dead asleep on his pillow, and I’m beginning to fall asleep at my computer.  I might as well just pack it up for the night!

Holy Cow!!!

So, its 4:30 and we are just now getting ready to go on our trip for the 2nd time today.  We were only 15 minutes outside of CR and Dad had a seizure.  Unbelievable!  We had fallen behind my parents car and saw their car off to the side of the road, and my mom and dad laying in the grass in the median.  I was in such shock and felt such anger this time around. ..not right before our trip!  I can’t even believe it, but after 4 hours in the ER it was determined that Dad was not taking enough anti-seizure medication.  CT scan showed improvement.  I feel like I’m just now exhaling for the first time.  So, Dad is actually doing better!

He was SOOO ready to get out of that hospital bed.  He kept looking at his watch telling us what time check-in was!

Holy Cow, we are such a state of relief right now, and amazingly, off to the North Shore!  Yahooooooooooooooooooo!

Off to the North Shore

I am SOOOOO excited!  We are off in the morning for our family trip to the North Shore!  I thought I was gonna have to give the girls a sedative to get them to go to sleep…but they are upstairs sleeping away!   I was putting together craft stuff and gathering family photos (we always do crafts) so we can do a project with pictures, and came across old photos from the North Shore.  We always had SO much fun, made music videos, painted rocks, ran around the pebble beach, had fires at night, explored.  Not everybody’s idea of a great vacation, but we had a ball coming up with our own fun.  We’ll also get to celebrate Father’s Day there, make pancakes, do gifts, have fun!  So, off I go to get my rest!

Well, its been a while since any real update…  My mom’s birthday book took all my time and got me out of the habbit! 

Well, my dad finished radiation 2-3 weeks ago, I lose track of time, and will get a re-scan in a few weeks to check on any new growths.  I truly don’t know what to expect, as every person is so very different with growth rates, location, etc.  There’s a lot of unknowns.  But one thing that is not unknown is that my dad is doing really well!  He’s been going with Josh to check on and change filters, as they’ve been taking some of the load away from Travis, and is doing good at that.  He even went to Vitos today to change one filter by himself!   He and Josh have been spending more time together, which is nice, both for my dad and for Josh.  Josh took him to get a White Sox hat and my dad looks adorable in it!  I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen my dad in any other hat than a military hat.  But it helps him to not feel quite as self-conscious about his scar across his head.  He has quite the large noggin though, which kind of surprised us all!  My mom put his hat on the other day and it falls over her ears and down to her nose!  She looks like a little girl who wandered in and found Daddy’s hats!  We’ll have to buy her her very own!

They’ve been watching a lot of basketball, as Josh has totally transformed my parents into basketball experts!  My mom can comment on the game without even devoting that much attention to it…and then the commentators will often repeat what she has just said!  Kind of creeps me out.  We always thought her missed calling in life was as an ice skater not a basketball coach. 

The mood with my dad has changed quite dramatically, and its not uncommon now to see my dad back in his normal routine of rubbing my mom’s neck!  That’s nice to see!  And its good timing because my mom’s back is really bad.  She had to get x-rays and an MRI done.   He still goes in spurts as to how much he can tollerate being around my girls.  He can be with them, and even enjoy being with them, for a certain amount of time, but then he either gets overstimulated or ancy and then has to get up and go somewhere ele.  He says yes to them sitting on his lap now, which is progress!  And bless her heart, Madeline never gave up!  When she wants to, she goes right up and asks him, even though he’s told her “no” before!  He’s liking being outside, although there’s not a ton for him to do outside.  He goes out periodically and picks weeds in their yard, which he enjoys.  My neighbor has some extra dirt and a couple of tomato plants that she gave us and I want to get my dad started on a garden to work on this summer, that he can take care of when he wants to get outside.  That was one idea that we think might take, as he shoots down a lot of the other ideas.

We’ve noticed that a lot of his communication difficulties are affected by anxiety levels he may be feeling about NOT being able to communicate.  As soon as he relaxes he can communicate more.  So, he and my mom are more successful in communicating than they were even a few weeks ago.  And the more he does and the more he tries communicating and utilizing his speaking skills, the easier it is for him.  He’s made a few phone calls, and gone in at a few places to take care of the errand they needed to run.  There’s definitely still major brain skills or abilities that have been damaged, but I think he’s at a much better place right now to enjoy the trip to the North Shore than he would’ve even a few weeks ago!  We leave in just over a week!  Yay!

All right, I gotta get going!  I’ll write more later!  Love you all!

Pics of us celebrating the end of radiation…and I’m messing around in photoshop! :) Don’t know much yet!

More and more and more pictures!

Madeline and her Grampy

Almost all our nieces and nephews on the Jandik side

Mmmmmm…parfaits!

I get to drive AND eat a parfait!!!

All dressed up and nowhere to go…hey, lets climb trees!

The girls are so beautiful!

How Madeline and I watch the girls ride bikes, when the bugs are bad!

After Garmai’s Spring Concert

Smile girls!

Madeline even saw some of her friends after the show…from her preschool days at Monroe. Jacob was her little friend!

Wait, I can’t see her!

Lookin good, lieutenant Thompson!

Madeline’s very first time on two wheels…well, 4 wheels!

SING!

Garmai’s Cheering Section!

He’s pretty cute!

Sparklers

Please spread out with fire in your hands!

WOW!

Watch out for the synthetic hair!

A night of grandparents! Fire bowl, chairs and sparklers, complements of Grampa-da-bubbles!

Travis, manning the fire…and my dad keeping watch as well!

Our little glamour queen!

Trying out snaps for the first time

Getting the girls all ready for snaps

The uncles! How proud we are of our big boy!

Happy Birthday Doodlebug!

I always have to hand the camera off to get in a picture!

Okay mom, cheese!

They’re growing up so fast!

Uncle Joshy! Let me go!

And for James??? A swing just his size!

Gramma and Grampa’s new toy!

What an adorable little couple!

This birthday boy stuff is hard work!

Hmph! Another picture?!?!

Emma-pooh

She loves those stripey socks for gloves

It was just killing my girls to watch James with that cake! They’re all gluten intollerant…and to pretty much everything else under the sun.

Talk about a very neat and tidy little guy! No face smashing for this one!

My absolute favorite birthday pics!

James and his grampa

I LOVE the extensions in her hair!

What a handsome guy?

Birthday boy chair!

I wasn’t able to take a pic of our onesee we bought him. It had three little chicks that were rappers and it said, “Hangin with my peeps!”

A book from Grandma

Our super agile climber! Awe…she takes after her Mama. I don’t know how many times I climbed that tree in front of Maranatha!

How kissable is that little lip?!?!

Hello Grampa!

Gramma with her Jameseepooh!

A little birthday excitement!

The girls LOVE giving my mom back rubs!

Dad is DONE with radiation!!!!

Well, radiation finished up a week ago, and this past week began the “post-radiation” phase of life, which is a lot more boring for him!  Its amazing how active having lots of appointments keeps you.  But, Dad is doing good, having a much more significant struggle with aphasia (self-initiated communication), and that’s really frustrating to him, but he can still answer questions quite well.  My mom’s birthday was good.  We finally got the book finished on Saturday at dinner time…talk about a logistical nightmare!  Rebekah and I photoshopped every page with a digital scrapbooking look, and can I just say, my family wanted to throw my computer out the window by the time it was done!  But, it was worth all the work and my mom sat and read all 50 letters over the course of Saturday night!  Thank you to all who participated!  If you didn’t get yours in and you’d still like to pass along a note, let me know and I’d be happy to forward it on to her!  My aunt helped my dad put together a great birthday present from him.  She does fantastic charm bracelets and there were charms that represented all different aspects of her/their life together!  She loved it!  And Josh gave her a 6 hour day at the spa…just what the doctor ordered!   It was fun having Rebekah here for her B-Day, and we are looking forward to our trip to the North Shore in a couple of weeks!

Okay, gotta get out the door to my parents’ house!  Love you all and thank you for your love and concern for my family!

Tickling Gramma’s feet was apparently part of the massage!

We ran over and let the girls ride a few rides at the Lindale Carnival

You might be able to see Garmai and Madeline holding hands! :)

Hee Hee Hee!

Push me, push me!

My mom and I were SO nervous that Madeline was going to burst into tears!

It only took my dad a couple of throws for his brain to remember exactly how to throw. Go Dad!

Mom’s Birthday Meal

Auntie Ree-be-kah, why can’t you stay???

Madeline’s best friend around the house! He “participates” in LOTS of activities!

BIRTHDAY PROJECT

Hello Everyone, I had an idea and wanted to pass it along. My mom’s 60th birthday is coming up on the 28th of May. I want to do something special, but doing anything big I think would be too much for either of them at this point. We probably won’t even have a get together outside of our immediate family. But one thing I want to do is put together a “Book of Encouragement” for her. For those of you who know my mom well enough to do this, please take a few minutes and think about something you appreciate about her, a memory you have with her that might be of encouragement, a quality you see that is being used right now. Write it as long as you want or as short as you want, and you can include anything you want (songs, scripture), whatever is the best expression for you! I want to put it together in a book for her to read on days she feels low! If you have a picture of you or your family that you can attach to the email, I’d like to put your picture by your writing. The best and easiest way to do this would be to email your thoughts and then I can print it off on nice paper that I can put together in a book. But, if you’d rather mail it to me, I can scan the picture and type it in. Just don’t let the email thing be a deterrent if mailing it will allow you to be included! I want to make this user friendly!

If you have any questions just let me know! And, if you can make sure I have your emails/letters by the end of this week, that will give me some time to finalize the book and get it printed for her! Thanks everyone!

Also wanted to pass along how grateful we are for all the work on the garage sale! The men from the All Saints men’s group all came over on Wednesday to drop it off and I just happened to walk in the door at the same time! Your commitment to supporting my parents left them speechless when you walked out the door. My mom just sat shaking her head! I told them, “God seems to be carrying you on the wings of so many people right now!” Its incredible! So, thank you for the huge undertaking this garage sale was! One funny note from the sale…I brought the girls to the sale last weekend so we could see things and I told the girls they could each pick one thing out. Then, I realized we had no cash so I actually went up to my mom and said, “Do you think I could borrow a few dollars from you and pay you back later today?” Then we looked at each other and realized how ridiculous that question was, since she would be lending me money to give to the sale, to be given back to her! So, she told the gal there just to let the girls each pick something out! Heehee! Never claimed we were the sharpest tools in the shed!

Dad’s doing okay. We’re a little discouraged because we’re seeing his symptoms increase again (confusion, memory, etc)…which means the swelling is increasing again. That can happen as a result of stopping the steroid and simply from the radiation. The doctors will decide whether to put him back on Decadron…yuck! Nobody is excited about that prospect! Josh took him to see Star Trek over the weekend and he said he really enjoyed that!! I escaped the house on Friday to watch a movie with them, and then sat talking to him for a while on Friday night and commented on how he just happens to be one of those men who looks good bald! “You have a very fortunate head shape,” I said. He’s had only three different hairstyles almost my entire life…the swooped parted look, the short one that most of you are used to, and the bald look! I told him he’s a lucky guy…he laughed!

I’ll post more in the next day or so…and I hope to post some pics from this weekend on my blog! Garmai had her spring concert and I got a video of my dad dancing! Hee hee! Hope you have a good week!