Return from Hiatus

Life has been very crazy lately, and I’ve been falling behind on my blogging.  A few weeks ago I started a new job (within ADT) as a six sigma black belt.  The very weekend that I was preparing to drive from Jacksonville to Boca Raton for my first week of training, our youngest daughter had a seizure.  Although it only lasted a couple of minutes, it seemed to last forever.  We called 911 and by the time the paramedics arrived, she had already stopped seizing.

We took her to the ER where they did numerous tests (CT scan, EKG, EEG, blood tests, etc.) and everything came back normal.  That Sunday I was driving back and forth between the airport, home, and the hospital picking up my mother and father-in-law and my mother.  I almost cancelled my trip, but since my wife and kids were in good hands, I left for my week-long training.  As I was driving back on Friday, my wife was growing concerned about our youngest.  My wife knew she wasn’t herself, so she took her to the ER that afternoon.  Just as they arrived to the ER, she experienced her second seizure.

I drove from Boca directly to the very same hospital I left just five days prior.  I spent three nights with her, because my wife had to stay home with our oldest who was very ill with a fever and vomiting.  My parents came up that Saturday and were a big help once again.  During her second hospital stay, they did additional tests (including an MRI to get a better picture of her brain) and once again everything came back normal.  From what I gather, very little is known about the root cause of epilepsy, and it can only be diagnosed by the symptoms.  The doctors can rule out “visible” problems with the brain with tests, and if everything is normal they then determine it is epilepsy.  One doctor said it best when she said that it is a diagnosis by exclusion.

She’s now taking a medication called Keppra, that is supposed to help prevent seizures.  We are hopeful it will help and we also hope she will outgrow them (she’s only a year and a half).  She has returned to her spunky little self, and is once again running all over the house enjoying life.  My wife and I are definitely having a more difficult time coping than she is, but we’re getting through it day-by-day.

Things are slowly getting back to normal, although I’m not really sure exactly what normal is anymore with all that has happened.  I will be getting back to blogging soon.  I’m still learning about microblogging, and I do broadcast messages on occasion several social networks with Ping.fm.  I’ll be blogging about my experience as a microblogging n00b soon enough, so stay tuned!