Little Troll or Little Sweetheart?

I say an absolute sweetheart....no battle. When I told Abi I was going to put this picture on the blog, she said "No WAY! I look like a troll!!" But since this is really just a means of journaling for me, she has no choice plus I think it's adorable. I don't even know why I love this picture because it actually hurts my heart a little but there is just something about it that embodies the sweetness that Abi has in her. For some reason, I think this picture shows many things, a little tiredness, a little nervousness, but SO much sweetness. She's just such a good sweet girl and we are so blessed to have her.

So on to the reason, she has a bazillion electrodes hooked onto her head. No worries though, she is doing great. It all started over a year ago. I started noticing little moments where Abi would space off a little. In the middle of conversations, she would just quit talking or not respond to what I was saying. I initially thought it was just daydreaming, thinking of other things, etc., but as time went on it started to concern me a little bit as I would try to snap her out of it but couldn't. These episodes were short, lasting just a few seconds, but it seemed something more to me than just mere daydreaming. My mom noticed them also and was a little concerned. I mentioned it to Russel and he immediately said "well she could be having absent (pronounced obsont) seizures I suppose." WHAT??? That was a little scary for me to hear. So he started watching for them to happen and I would point them out when I noticed them. They were happening quite a few times a day. I started picking up on patterns of what she would do when these would occur, what she would look at, etc. It became quite clear there was something not quite right. Her friends at school started noticing and we decided we better do some testing. With Russel's history of his brain surgery, we were maybe a little more concerned than normal and looking back he wonders if he didn't have absent seizures as a child.

Russel ordered an EEG a couple weeks ago and got it scheduled for a day she had off of school (fun day huh?) The night before the test, the instructions were sent home. I got tired just reading them. She couldn't have any sugar, caffeine, blah, blah, blah after dinner which was not too bad but she could only have 4 hours of sleep the night before and it had to be between midnight and 4:00 a.m. So of course Mommy signed up for the same protocol also. Abi did pretty good other than she fell asleep watching American Idol at around 10:30 which I didn't realize for probably 15 mins or so and then the next morning I got her up and got her on the computer while I was doing some other stuff and didn't notice she had fallen back asleep. So I opened her facebook which woke her right up. Facebook is always entertaining and enlightening right?

Anyway, it was a long night but Abi was a champ, and I actually got caught up on my blogging that night.....well except for Spring Break which I'm slowly working on.....just can't get some of the pictures to download correctly .....so keep watching for that post.

Her EEG was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. and would last about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I just kept hoping and praying that they would be able to document one so that we wouldn't have to go through this again. The poor thing was exhausted, I just knew we only wanted to do this once. Well, hoping to catch one and worrying about it was totally unnecessary. They hyperventilated her for 2-3 minutes and caught 6 just in that timeframe. And several more throughout the test including when she was sleeping. The nurse said I could at least triple the amount that I actually see during the day as to how many Abi really has during the day.

To explain the absent seizures...it is just like the brain having a little misfire...in fact most people would never even know she had one and commonly they are mistaken for daydreaming. In fact they are a little more common in girls and usually present around age 10ish. They can grow out of them but Russel found out from research he has been doing that it is less likely they will grow out of them if they still have them at age 12. :( She is at a 30% increased risk for a full blown seizure so she has to take precautions.....no driving 4-wheelers, etc., no swimming alone, showers only, etc. She's handled this whole thing so well but after hearing about the list of things she needs to be careful with, she broke down and cried. It's so hard to see your kids go through hard things and my heart just broke for her. So we told her how much we loved her and why it's so important to follow the precautions for her safety.....but really she's just 12, and it's hard to fully comprehend the big picture. So we start her on medicine on Monday and hope that she responds well. We will meet with a pediatric neurologist on Wednesday at Primary Children's and see what his recommendations are. Of course, our hope is that she will grow out of them and that the medicine will control things to a point where she can eventually do some of those things she loves to do. We've got a good few years before she'll be wanting to drive Dad's corvette around town right? We'll get it figured out by then. Love you sweet Abi

Oh what the heck, here's a little video from that day as well......Abi will for sure love me even more :)