again...

She did it again... :(

Reese had another seizure almost 2 weeks ago, on a Monday. This time it was at home with us. We were just getting ready to walk out the door to take Addison and Presley to the eye dr. when Reese fell in the kitchen. I was in the other room packing up a bag to take and I heard Chad ask her if she was ok. I turned around to look at her and immediately knew she was going to have a seizure by the look in her eyes. Chad very calmly laid her down on her side and told me to start timing it. I told him I was going to call 911, but he reassured me I didn't need to yet, just time her. (We only need to call 911 if her seizure lasts over 5 minutes.) Thankfully it was over in a little over a minute. When she stopped, Chad picked her up and her head just flopped back. She had no muscle control. She was super hot as well. He laid her on the couch and I grabbed the phone and went over to her. While I was waiting for the Dr. to get on the phone Presley and Addison came over to us on the couch. I told the girls to start praying for Reesey because she wasn't feeling well. Addison started rubbing Reese's arm and saying, "It's ok Reesey, Addy's here." :)

The Dr. wanted us to come in so he could check her out. (Our pediatrician was on vacation so we saw another Dr. in the practice.) Reese was very tired and slept a little while waiting for the Dr., but by the time he came in the room, she was up and walking around. He checked her over and asked lots of questions (as did we). By the time we were done, Reese was loving on Dr. H. She was laying her head in his lap. Chad and I really felt like he explained everything he knew that was happening. In fact Chad mentioned that he bets this Dr. is always running late, because we felt that he was very thorough. (Which is a great thing - the thorough part, not the late part.) Dr. H wanted us to get an MRI to make sure the EEG and CT scan didn't miss anything. We were able to get squeezed in the very next morning, Tuesday. The hard part was that she could only have about 5 hours of sleep the night before and then of course no food or drink several hours before. For a girl who is used to 12+ hours of sleep at night, this wasn't very fun. Chad and I kept her up late (with Hil's help) and then kept setting the alarm clock and getting up with her throughout the night. The goal is for people getting a MRI to be very sleepy - Reese met that goal. :) It only took the lowest dose of a sedative to put her to sleep, although she did get very mad trying to fight going to sleep.

Chad and I stayed in the room with her during the test. It was LOUD! We had to wear earplugs and it was still loud. The test was a little over a 1/2 hour. It was so sad seeing little Reese laying on the table with this huge machine. She ended up waking up (moving around) with about 40 seconds left. Thankfully the dr. said he had enough that we could just stop. We were already scheduled to go to our dr. on Thursday for her 15 month well-visit. Her dr. agreed that she is developing completely normal, meeting all her milestones and everything looked good. She was also able to look over the MRI scans and told us that everything looked good. They weren't able to find anything, but she did suggest meeting with a pediatric neurologist to go over everything.

They scheduled a pediatric neurologist for us in Indianapolis, but the earliest we can get in is November. Thankfully we had a connection (thanks Pam) that helped us get in with a local neurologist who sees infants this past Thursday. She agreed that in all the tests that she has seen so far, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for Reese's seizures. She sees a perfectly developing brain for her age. We told her we weren't sure if we should pray to find something on the MRI that we could "fix" and deal with or to pray to find nothing and she assured us we got the best results. She said for dealing with seizures, Reese has everything going for her. Clear CT scan, normal EEG and perfect MRI. No family history and she has met all of her developmental milestones.

She does want to have Reese undergo another EEG. The first time Reese had the EEG test was right after her 2nd seizure in the hospital and she slept through the ENTIRE test. The neurologist told us that after a seizure the brain kind of "re-boots" itself so she wants to see her awake for part of the test. We are scheduled to have that test this coming Tuesday. After she looks at the results from the 2nd EEG she is pretty sure that she wants to start Reese on anti-seizure medication. She was telling us that without medication Reese has an 80 - 90% chance of having another seizure. The seizures that she has had have not been very long or harmed her in any way, but there is no way of knowing if they could get longer or more severe in the future. She suggested trying medicine for 2 years with lots of blood tests and EEG's to make sure that everything looks ok. If after 2 years (or a little before) Reese is seizure free and has normal EEG's then she would take Reese off the medicine.

So, that's where we are now... waiting on more tests, praying about if medicine is the right answer and which medicine, and enjoying life with our 3 little girls. Reese is still her normal, happy, busy self. Running everywhere she can. :) We are still thinking about possibly keeping the appointment with the specialist as well. In the meantime, we appreciate all your support and ask that you keep Reese (and us) in your prayers.
p.s. I've talked to Reese several times and told her that there are better ways at going about getting attention from us. :) I know being a 3rd child in a little less than 4 years you sometimes get ignored, but Reese this is NOT the way to go about it. :) Good thing we love you. ;)