Children (all 3) Updates

Written Monday night:
Malachi got into the neurologist today at 2:00 p.m. I picked him up from school, which he wasn't very happy about (partly because he's afraid to go to any Dr. because there might be shots, partly because his friend told him that he was going to his house after school - wrong! Not even if there was no Dr. appointment would that happen), and we got to the Dr's office to early, so we walked to a nearby play ground.

We got to the office before John, who joined us about five minutes before the appointment was supposed to start. Fifteen minutes later a woman came out (I'm confused about this. He's a Pediatric Neurologist and her son was sitting alone in the waiting room...), and we were told to go in. He asked us about the event (his English isn't great and my Spanish isn't great, especially in the realm of medical terms, so he and John did most of the talking together), getting very specific, and I felt a little foolish getting into the position that Malachi was in, but once he got an idea of what happened he did a physical exam.

Written Tuesday night:
The physical exam was passed with flying colors, and the Dr. determined that we just needed to increase the amount of medicine that he's given. He gave us a Rx and scheduled an appointment for April (some Dr.'s here schedule their own appointments and then have you inform the receptionist when the appointment is) for another check up. He reassured us that Malachi's "attack" shouldn't cause us any concern, and we should proceed normally (although, who am I kidding, as much as I want to proceed normally, I'll always be watching out of the corner of my eye to see him, and straining my ear to hear him, and occasionally calling out his name if he's too quiet).

Then the best part of the appointment, the announcement that no testing was needed - not even blood tests! So...not only was he fine, but we didn't have to poke or prod! That's definitely the best part. We (Malachi and I) were dreading news of blood or other tests. There were cheers from the two of us!

We left the office, and celebrated the amazing results of the afternoon, and Malachi's great behavior by getting lunch for John and I and dessert for all three of us! Last night I was exhausted and even though that was the case, I didn't go to bed early enough. I did spend a great evening with my wonderful husband though.
Today at work, I was so tired. I had two meetings this morning, the second one running until almost 12:30. By the end of that I was very hungry and almost laying down on the table because my body was so heavy and hard to support. In the afternoon, I chose to go to a meeting just so I wouldn't fall asleep at work.

We left work a bit early so I could make it to an appointment that I had at 5:00 p.m. When I (finally - they always run really late) got into the office, and switched to English after the greetings so I could speak my mind better, I started with I'm exhausted, and he said I look it - I believe him.

We talked about my few questions, and he did the exam: measure the belly, take the blood pressure, listen to the heart beat, weigh the big fat preggo. I say big fat preggo because I gained 3 1/2 kilos this month!! For those not familiar with the metric system that's 7.71617918 pounds! That's way too much for one month and he said the only reason he's not killing me is because so far I'd lost almost that much. My net gain in half the pregnancy is only half a kilo.

I think I may have eaten a few too many Thin Mints this month (who am I kidding, I've had almost five boxes worth in five months...and that's not a joke).

I go in again in about five weeks and get to have another sonogram! I love seeing the baby! I also love that they're not as rigid as Dr.'s in the States about how many times I have to go in. It's cheaper this way.

Oh, and real quick...Simon's improving. He's eating more, and sleeping better.

Firsts

I had a couple of firsts today.

Our first Dr appointment. Malachi went to the neurologist today for a check up. He's doing great. The Dr wants to see Malachi in three months - John wants us to wait because the Dr in the US said every six months is enough. I really don't want to call and reschedule and have a conversation with the Dr about why I'm not going enough. I hate being judged by my kids Drs. Whether or not it's justified.

My first Spanish speaking drive through. Malachi was so awesome that I wanted to bring him to McDonald's for ice cream. We didn't have time before getting daddy from work to go in, so I went in the drive through. After I made the decision to do this I was a little afraid. But I handled it really well. I finally figured out that he was saying they only had chocolate flavored (fine with me!). So I ordered two. And purchased two for about $1.60. This was a total confidence booster!

Simon's first bout of diarrhea. He's been getting worse over the last few days but today he actually has had four dirty diapers. If he has one more, I'm going to call the nurse's cell phone. If he can go the rest of the day with no dirty diaper, then I'll just talk to her when I go to work tomorrow. His appetite waxes and wanes and he had a very slight fever (don't even know what it was because it wasn't high enough to take) on Friday night.

Otherwise he's as happy as can be. He's been talking and laughing up a storm the last few days. He's even been laughing at something in the back of the car.

So two great firsts and one horrible one. I really hope the diarrhea isn't something serious. Say a prayer.

Pediatric Neurologist

Today was a check-up with Malachi's new Pediatric Neurologist, Dr. Lavenstien (Dr. L). He had a second year resident with him also who was very nice.

Both Dr.'s were very impressed with Malachi's development and are confident that the seizures aren't inhibiting that. Dr. L said that we're going to be watching Malachi for any seizure activity over the next six months. If we see any hint of activity during this time we're going to do a 72 hour EEG. They're hoping to get him during a real deep sleep to see if they can catch anything (with the two previous EEG's they've caught nothing). If we don't see any activity we'll go see him in six months.

John and I noticed that Malachi's sleeping has decreased the last couple of weeks. I asked the Dr. if this is a side effect and he confirmed that it is. It doesn't become a concern unless Malachi starts sleeping fewer than eight hours a night. So far he's still doing that. It's just hard for mom and dad to get up at 5:50 am like we did today.

The Dr. seems unconcerned by our impending move. The city we're moving to (again, to find out where check John's blog) has a population of 11 million. He seems confident that if there isn't anything in our city to take him to that there'll be something close. The medicine that Malachi takes (Keppra) is made by 22 different companies world wide and will be very easy to access.

If Malachi gains 15% body weight then we need to increase his dose (4 lbs). He hasn't gained a pound in over a year it seems (this did not concern the Dr. - he's a pretty mello guy) so this isn't something I'm very concerned about.

Apparently 70% of kids that have Epilepsy don't ever find out why. The cases that are like that who go seizure free for a couple of years on medicine have a very good prognoses. That said...if Malachi goes two years with no seizure activity on his medicine then we'll look at weaning him off the medicine to see if he's done seizing.

Please pray that Malachi has zero seizure activity. I want to never see him do that again. That is my prayer for my son. I love him so much, and I don't want to see him go through this again.

Thank you to everyone who's been so supportive over the last few weeks. We miss you all so much and love you all so much. And believe me, I too wish that you could just hop in a car and come over to hang and chat. I really miss y'all so much.

Blessings to you all!