J a k e

J a k e
at the beach in Destin

Jake's story

July 21st was a normal day, as were the days of summer before. Everything was in it's place. School days were approaching and the family was enjoying the last days by the pool, ignored bedtimes and high popsicle counts.

Then July 22, 2008 came....

Jake had his first seizure. I did not recognize it as such. It was not until he had several more of these "little jerks" and bloody noses that I thought this could be seizure activity. We were scheduled to see a neurologist on August 4th, after going through our pediatrician, however we didn't make it that far. I was awakened August 1st, by Jake in a full seizure (6 minutes long)...he started to turn blue so I called 911....

Here begins our journey......

...we were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Checked in. Released. 3 more grand mal seizures after being released. Checked back in. Sent home 3 days later. Another grand mal, this one lasting a whopping 11 minutes and taken by ambulance again. Stayed at Childrens Dallas for a week. Upping meds, changing meds and mixing meds.
Diagnosis: Epilepsy
Cause: Unknown
We have now found, through some absolutely amazing family and extended family, whom I will NEVER be able to thank enough, the wonderful doctors and nurses at Cook Childrens Hospital in Fort Worth, who are continuing to help us through this. We have had another grand last thursday, and are averaging anywhere from 5-30 seizures (jerks, drops, stares) a day. I was to begin back teaching at Apollo, but am having to put that on hold until the seizures are controlled. Jake is not able to go back to school until he is 30 days seizure free. We are still waiting for that ONE day. Please pray for our family and for little Jake. Although this is not the end of the world, it is a huge hurdle we WILL overcome. Pray for courage for Jake, understanding as parents, good doctors and for the right medicines.

Jake's mom, Christine


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Thursday, November 13, 2008

We have our first black eye!

As we are sitting at dinner last night Jake had a seizure which resulted in a cut and a black eye.

As awful as it might seem, all Matt and I could do was look at each other and laugh, while repeating, again..."Are you kidding me?!"

You see, and some of you may remember, the gash on his check that has now left a nice "v shaped" scar. He got that gash, sitting on the floor, while wearing his helmet. In an effort to prevent injuries, a while back we started having picnics on towels in the family room, as to avoid falls from the table. one afternoon, for snack, we gave Jake a small plastic bowl full of grapes and sat him on the "picnic table", donned with the helmet. he had a seizure, his face fell forward, the helmet broke the bowl, his check followed the path of the helmet, hit the exact point of the where the bowl had split, resulting in the "v shaped gash."

We thought we had taken every precaution to prevent injuries, but apparently not.

The black eye and eye gash is a similar experience.

We graduated Jake to a booster seat strapped to a chair, so we can again eat dinner as a family. I made sure to strap Jake in,move his chair away from the table, in the case he did have a seizure, his head would not hit the table. Jake did have a head drop seizure last night. usually he snaps right back with us, and in a matter of 2 seconds he is on his way. Last night he continued to cry. We could not figure out what he was crying for. Taking a closer look, I observed a bloody circle just under his eye. The circle was approximately the size of a straw opening.

yes, you got it! His face fell right onto his straw, in his cup, on his tray.

Resulting in.....a gash and a black eye.

We are VERY thankful this is the worst we have to report and continue to appreciate all the prayers of support and thoughts.

Meanwhile, the comedy, that is The Peters' house, continues.

God Bless~ Christine

4 comments:

Brandy said...

good Lord....how many glasses of wine are you up to a night?

Mrs. Adams said...

Geez! I am glad you can laugh at it and that it wasn't worse than what you said.

Anonymous said...

Man that child has good aim! Can't wait to kiss his boo boo!

Anonymous said...

Never thought a straw could be so dangerous :)