Another Stay at the EMU

 I swear sometimes I think our lives would make for some really good reality TV. 

Last week we all had the flu.  Alex and I definitely had it worse than the boys.  Today's actually day 10 for me and I'm still struggling a little with it.  So is Alex.  Alex started with a fever and some coughing last Saturday.  I started to feel bad Sunday night. Monday morning both Alex and I were clearly sick.  Aaron took the day off and got Alex to the doctor while I slept.  She was swabbed at the doctor and tested positive for the flu - type B.  Monday night my doctor called in Tamiflu for me.  We were both running fevers and we were both feeling miserable.  I spent all of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning in bed.  Tuesday Aaron started coughing and feeling a little achy so he stopped by his doctors office and got Tamiflu too.  Wednesday he was already feeling better.  Wednesday night Zach started with the nasty cough and Thursday morning he had a fever.   Lucky for Zach and the perfect attendance award he's working towards this year, we got some snow and ice so school was closed Thursday and Friday!

On Friday Alex was admitted into the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) for an overnight EEG to see how her brain functions were in addition to checking out what was going on with her seizures.  Zach started throwing up Friday morning and when Aaron was getting ready to leave with Alex, my van was dead.  So on top of dealing with everything else, Aaron had to have the battery in the van replaced before heading to the hospital.  Fun times.  :)

Sweet girl waiting for her room.

                                    

I was still sick and there was no way I could spend the night in the hospital with Alex sleeping in a chair.  I know Aaron is completely capable of taking care of her, but I have never not been with her during a hospital stay and not being there was completely stressing me out.  I barely slept Friday night between worrying about her and coughing so much so I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and at the hospital by 9.  When I got there the doctor had already rounded and decided he wanted Alex to stay an additional night.  I hadn't brought anything with me to stay, but I knew leaving that day was not an option for me!

I have to stop for just a minute and just say how incredibly thankful I am that Aaron is the hands on dad that he is.  He is just as involved in Alex's care as I am, he's an amazing dad and I can honestly say I count that as one of the biggest blessings in my life.  He was right by her side getting her leads glued on, reading to her, feeding her, changing her, entertaining her.  I don't give him enough credit.  Ever. 

My parents too.  I'd be lost without them and their support.  For sure. 

Sweet girl with the first of many 'crowns' she received!

I take for granted what an incredibly laid back, go with the flow kind of kid Zach is.  I guess he has not other choice growing up with a special needs sibling, but I often don't take into consideration what all of her therapy, appointments and hospital stays do to him.  He's constantly being dragged from one thing to the next and he does it with virtually zero complaining.  His only gripe this hospital stay is that he wanted to spend the night with her. 

Kissing sissy goodnight.

On Saturday Alex got a special visit from a sweet puppy named Jolly!

Alex has therapy dogs that come to visit her at school too and she LOVES when the dogs visit.  Zach said having a dog like this that visits hospitals is something he would like to do when he's old enough.  I think that would be an awesome volunteer project for him and something I may look into down the road. 

Happy to be out of bed and up in her chair - but definitely ready for a crown change!

The neurologist rounding this weekend was great.  I wish I could write what he observed in Alex's study as eloquently as he spoke it, but that's not going to happen!  In a nut shell he basically said that when Alex is in non dream sleep, there are spikes and sharps in her brain that are exploding every 12-13 seconds.  Those spikes and sharps fire off so rapidly that they build up to an epileptic occurrence and that  there is so much 'background noise' going on that she needed to have her night meds increased to try and quiet her brain.  He also said that a typical person, on average, will wake up approximately 5 times a night, but usually only for a minute or less, maybe changing positions, or glancing at the clock, but then falling right back to sleep.  He said that Alex wakes up A LOT during the night and that she is typically awake for 8-10 minutes at a time.   We were hoping to capture an actual seizure so the study could give some additional information, but of course, as usual, she behaves when she's in the EMU :)  He asked if we wanted to stay Sunday night as well, but there was no guarantee she would have a seizure and I knew she wanted to break out - as did I! And not a moment too soon - it was almost time for crown number 5!

She was beyond excited to have all of that mess off of her head - but holy hair!

 In the waiting room waiting for Daddy with the princess balloon that Zach brought her that was bigger than she was :)

And one happy girl to be in the car heading home!!

Other than the fact that we are still picking lots of glue out of her head, she is happy to be home, happy to be back at school and happy to be back in a routine!  It will be short lived though since she's having her gland surgery in two weeks.  Hopefully that will not be a very exciting episode, I mean chapter, I mean event :)