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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The past couple days have been pretty rough for Jake. He falls, wearing the helmet numerous times. He reopens the "flappy gums," busts his lip, bruises his cheeks, and then does it all over again.
After several times falling and laying in puddles of his own blood he lifted his head and said ," Is this why you don't want me to be near hard things?"
This is a picture of his face last night...unfortunately it looks a little worse this morning, as his lip is about 3 times this size now.
Addison decided to grab the camera last night as Jake continued to have seizures in my arms. She did a pretty good job capturing the realness of our evenings( not Jake looking at the wine...that is Jake having or just have had a seizure).
However the kid always seems to bounce back as if nothing has happened and he hasn't had too many seizures to count that day. He resumed his silliness, by emerging from the restroom, donning Addi's abandoned gymnastics leotard(backwards). (Matt is so proud!)
I informed Jake that he can take gymnastics, but boys don't wear leotards. He continued to order me to sign him up for gymnastics and they won't care if he wore a leotard, because some boys do!
Charles H Spurgeon
God Bless~ Christine
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