Donovan, Nora, Kevin, Sarah & Jill
Hello to all,
I had a few minutes so I thought I would write again. Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers. We are still getting Jill's med regulated but the seizures she's had since the bad one that she had at school have been the ones we are used to. She's missed alot more school than I would have liked her to, but that can't be helped. The med change has been positive as far as her ability to learn and she has been much more bright eyed and with it. Unfortunately she can't be having seizures every week so we may still need to do something more with her meds. She will be at a full dose in 3 weeks so we'll see.
I'm sorry to learn of some of the different health circumstances. We will
be keeping each of you in our prayers, Nikki, Dan and Brian.
Paul, I hope you had a great birthday. I did think of you that day. I talked
to Barb and she told me about the surprise. Sounds like you all had a good time.
Wow Susan, I'm so proud of you! I'm sure that you're a great principal and I know that you will do an excellent job. Bob, I'm proud of you too - way to go!
Peg, we are going to stay in Oswego for Thanksgiving. Kevin's family is getting together for the first time in several years for the holiday and Kevin wanted to join them. I still don't know weather I have to work or not. We will probably be up either the weekend after Thanksgiving or the weekend before depending on my work schedule. I've called Dad but he hasn't been home when I've called. I will try and touch base with him sometime this week.
Well I'm not sure that I have alot of news. My job is going well, I seem to
be settling back in. I got to work at the school today which was both challenging
and fun. What a way to spend a day off!
Other than the health issues Jill is having a good year of school. Mrs Smith
is her teacher this year and she has been trying to create a curriculum for
Jill that has her working on 80% known material and 20% new material. She wants
her to acheive mastery rather than just exposing her to concepts that are beyond
her. She is making progress reading - she is now reading on a solid first grade
level, she is excelling at 2nd grade math and is very successful with first
grade spelling words. Her science and Social Studies programs are modified but
are the same material the rest of the 3rd graders are studying.
Sarah is doing very well this year as usual. She joined the worship team at school and is playing guitar, keyboard and singing. She really likes participating in this. She was chosen to represent the school at a junior high leaders conference a couple of weeks ago which she really enjoyed. She is still taking piano lessons and Irish step dancing lessons.
Kevin is doing well in his job. It has been tough at times but he seems to be getting the hang of things. Unfortunately the gentleman that has been the bookkeeper has gotten to be quite ill and didn't fully complete all of Kevin's training before this so not only is Kevin concerned for George but he needs to figure somethings out on his own. It is a good thing he is as smart as he is.
Well Jill has an eye appointment so I need to run. Thanks again for your prayers and thanks for always being there for me. I love you all.
Nora
All right already. I know I've been a slacker when it comes to keeping in touch. Life has been a little bit hectic as it always is. I am trying to keep up by reading my email - just haven't afforded the time to respond.
Where do I start? I don't know if you'd call my job a new job but it seems really new to me. I am back working in the lab at Oswego Hospital. So far so good but I still have a ways to go to get back to where I was when I left there. I'm not looking forward to the weekends, holidays and rotating shifts but we need to pay the bills.
We've recently had some trauma in our family. Jill has been sick with pneumonia and has had a few seizures that have coincided with her recovery plus her neurologist changing her medicine. Last week she had what I would class as a complex partial seizure at school. She was sitting at a picnic table out in front of the school with her class and she fell suddenly to the ground. She lay rigid with her eyes open for about 3 minutes and then was helped back into school. Kevin went over to pick her up thinking she had had a typical seizure which are hard for her but not overwhelming for us ... we are used to them. When Stephanie (the school administrative assistant) went into the nurse's office to get her she just clung to her and could not seem to find her feet to get up in walk. They were able to lead her out but she didn't really respond to Kevin. Kevin and Sarah helped her to the car and Kevin helped her into the car since she couldn't figure out how to get in on her own. All the way home (about a 5 minute ride) she stared off with her eyes glazed over and foamed at the mouth. Kevin helped her into the house put her on the couch called me then called her doctor. She did not speak at all. Once I got home (I work just 2 1/2 blocks from home) she still hadn't spoken and was making spastic jerking motions periodically. A nurse from Jill's neurologist office returned our call and recommended that we bring her to the ER since she still had not spoken. She became responsive verbally on the way to the ER but was still in an altered state consciousness. She had x-rays, lab work and a head CT all of which were normal. The PA from Dr Crosley's office called me the next day and had me begin to increase her lamictal over the next 6 weeks. She also prescribed another med to see her through until we get her up to her full dose. She is taking Tranxene until we have her on her full dose of Lamictal. Dr Crosley wanted to get her off Depakote since she has been on it for 5 years and he's concerned about the side effects - i.e. weight gain and liver toxicity. I was not thrilled about the Tranxene since it is a benzodiazapene but when she had a third seizure earlier this week I felt I had no choice but to start the med. She's had good days for the last couple of days and I'm hopeful that we are through the worse of it.
I have to sign off since I need to bring Sarah to piano lessons and Jill to Marti's for a play date with Gina. I have a women's meeting at church that is a farewell meeting for our current pastor's wife. Our pastor has decided to move on from here and we have not found a replacement yet. Since Kevin is an elder, this has put alot more expectation on him. He's preaching a couple times a month now. Well got to run.