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, August 20, 2009

Poster boy?

Back in April, when Jake was going through a very difficult time and seizing 100-200 times a day, we had to stay in the hospital for a week and 1/2.
It started out as simply an overnight stay so I thought.
A day grew into 3 more days, which turned into a week, which turned into more days.
I will not complain, as that week, seemed to "fix" Jake.
"Fix," totally, no.

But "fix" from seizing more than he wasn't, YES!!!
While we were there, I tried to keep Jake busy, so he wouldn't go crazy and most importantly so I , nor the nurses, would murder him.

10 days in a hospital with a 4 year old on drugs is not pleasant.

Jake and I took many wagon rides round the hospital, to different floors, the lobby and the prayer garden.

On one trip, Jake was asked to be allowed to be photographed. I obliged, as it is the very least we could do for the compassion, kindness, warmth, and knowledge Cook Children's has given us.

Last week while at our regular scheduled appt., Dr. Hernandez informed me that the Marketing team was outside and wanted to do a video and more pictures with Jake!

I am unsure, how that really went down, but I like to say that they knew Jake was there and wanted him for the pictures. So they took a video of Jake getting a "fake" immunization. They also took several still photos as well.

Ironically, The always active and never sit still boy, was dumbfounded. He did not say a word, which was alright as it will be recorded over, but appeared to be almost shy!

Turns out, the child was disappointed, yes disappointed and upset, that he received a fake shot and not the real deal!

The kid LOVES shots!

The other day I told Jake he had to go get blood dawn and he shot the BIGGEST smile and exclaimed "DaDAY?!" (today) I said yes, if he went to bed and napped real good! he immediately went to sleep, and the first thing he said upon waking was, "Can we go?!"

The lab techs, didn't believe me that he would be ok getting blood drawn. Therefore, they brought in the masses to try and hold him down.

The child extended his arm, asked to tie the rubber band to make the veins appear, and even "slapped" at his arm to make the veins appear.

They inserted the needle to draw the blood and the kid laughed! The techs were amazed! or maybe even appalled!:-)

Here are some photos from the first marketing event!

" in the end it's not the years in your life that count, but the life you put into those years."

Abraham Lincoln

God Bless~ Christine

1 comment:

Fawn said...

I love your fuzzy purple suit! It's a gorgeous colour and so stylish. :) Jake is adorable in these photos.

That's hilarious about the needles! Jade is really good, too, she doesn't even flinch, although she doesn't like the alcohol part. But she's definitely not as keen as Jake! Wow. What amazing kids we have, hunh?