The week long hospital visit that wasn't....

So I was about to leave work today when our doctor called us to tell us that Natalie has Menegitious or however you spell that icky word. I freaked out like I always do and called my cousin Rich and friend Daniel and got all upset. We waited to hear from Dr. Eady as to what we should do next. She called us and told us that we needed to go to Dell Children's Hospital and that we would be getting a week long course of IV antibiotics. Off we went. Natalie was happy as can be, twirling around, giggling, and generally the best I have seen her in a week by far. The nurse was very confused that Natalie was the girl she was looking for from the doctor's report. We had to endure 35 minutes of trying to start an IV (we gave up counting the needle pricks after 20) before they gave up. Next Natalie had the joy of her second lumbar puncture in one week. She was so good! I could not believe how great she was. She cried and got upset, but then went back to dancing and singing. The preliminary results were so good that they said that we would be staying for 48 hours to observe her, but then after they got more results the doctor said we could go home! Of course, it was 12:45 AM at this point, which is a bummer, but I am so glad that we don't have to spend a week in the hospital, even if it is a darn nice hospital.

a few photos from the wedding

As you can see, before all heck broke loose, we were having a great trip.

We are back in Austin. The hospital released Natalie yesterday afternoon and said we could fly today as long as we brought a seizure medicine called Diastat. My impression is that it is sort of like Valium, just in a suppository form to be given to stop the seizure. It is not a preventative medicine at all, just something to deal with the actual seizure. We are still trying to deal with all of this, but we have an appt. on Sept 30th with Natalie's neurologist. That should help some.

Scary end to our vacation

I had hoped that today I would be back at work, maybe posting a few fun photos from the wedding this weekend. Instead, I spent the past two days in the ICU at California Pacific. Natalie had her second febrile seizure (the first was back in May) Monday night. My stomach lurches when I think about that night. We had a great day and saw so much! The girls loved the sea lions at Fisherman's wharf and the beach. We went out for one last dinner before boarding an early flight the next day and Natalie was acting totally normal. All of a sudden we realized that she was staring fixedly at a point on the wall. She got terribly stiff and we realized what was going on. Andy ran her to the hospital because it was only a block away. The sweet man from the sushi restaurant even ran with us. Meagan was so scared, asking what we were doing and telling us to put her sister down. The worst part of the entire evening, by far, was the time in the ER. The doctors could not get her seizure to stop and they had to keep on giving her injections. Unfortunately, the nurses also could not get in an IV,so they had to do a direct line in her neck. My poor baby looks like a prizefighter, bruised all over. The ER transported her by ambulance to the Children's Hospital. By the time she got off of the ambulance, she was acting a bit more like Nati. Only Nati would sing "If you are happy and you know it" 5 minutes after a major seizure. The night in the ICU was challenging for me bacause Natalie had a paradoxical reaction to the Ativan given to her to stop the seizure. It was not unlike the reaction some toddlers have to Benadryl; she was all hyped up. She finally fell asleep around 5:00 AM. Our big concern yesterday was that she seemed very unstable and fell down over her own feet. Andy slept over with her last night and when she woke up she was a different kid. Illness has always come and gone very quickly with Natalie, so we are hoping this is an example of the same thing. Neurology had an EEG done, and it appears that she does not have Epilipsy, which is a relief. It is extremely hard for Andy and I as parents, though to know that this can happen at any time. We will be following up with our neurologist (we have one from when Natalie was diagnosed with hypotonia as a baby, but haven't seen him in a year or so) next week
Keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

It has been a great day!

We are in California for my brother's wedding. It was the perfect day! It was outside and there were no clouds in the sky, and the temperature was in the high 70s or so. It was a special occasion for so many reasons, and I am thrilled to have Brian Devine as part of our family. In case you were counting, that means that we have three Uncle Brians!

Be a Sharon Groupie!

Towards the bottom of the page, you will see a "Blog Follower" thingy (right above the Obama sign. The election is 2 months away. I promise that I will stop my Obama obsession soon enough, but it is in full swing right now!) I guess you can sign up. Then I can have groupies. I think that I need groupies. If you look at the stat counter on the bottom of the page, you will see that I have had like 103, 000 visitors. Or something like that. The reason is that Brian felt bad for me when he set it up and put 100, 000 as my starting number.
So in order for me to ever hit 200, 000 I will need each of you to visit my site 20 times a day, at least.

The photo above is of the girls wearing two of Andy's sports shirts. Meagan is wearing his Falcons Tball shirt, and Natalie is wearing the cool old school Astros jersey.

I wanna be a rock star!

How many kids can say that their grandfather has a real recording studio in their house? Obviously, Meagan can! She recorded some true classics when we visited last weekend. I am sure they will be Billboard hits soon.

Crummy weekend

After returning to work, I was really excited for a long weekend. We headed off to Houston and had a good time. The ride home, however, was horrible. We were stopped at a stoplight in Bastrop, just minding our own business, when CRASH!!! Our car was rear ended by a woman who told us her brakes just would not work. I don't know if she just didn't see the stoplight or her brakes really did fail, but either way, it was a pretty serious accident. Andy and the girls are OK, thank God. The car, however, did not fare as well. I do not think that I will be driving it for a very long time. Currently it is down in Bastrop where it was towed, but hopefully we can get the insurance rolling on it soon. We are so thankful to Brian G. who drove all the way to Bastrop to get us! Meagan, to add insult to injury, got a case of the stomach flu yesterday. We are home today, but I think she will be fine to go to school tomorrow. Natalie will be starting the "big girl" room on Wednesday!