A Seizure-Free Year

It occurred to me that we are probably just at the one year mark for no seizures in Little E. I just read back through my blog from February of 2008. E's seizures had gotten so bad between December 07-February 08. Originally starting in November of 06, the seizures were at their worst in early 2008. We kept upping his medication and he kept smashing his head into tables, floors, you name it. Despite med increases, the seizures gradually increased. Some days he would have as many as 15-20 drops. I was ready to buy a sling big enough for a 4 year old and strap him to my body 24 hours a day.
It was a rough time for our family.
It was also a busy time for babies being born. The last that month was my dear chiropractor friend, Diane. I hadn't told her about our Little E, but my friend had. Diane suggested I bring him with me to her 2 week postpartum visit so she could adjust him. I knew E would be wary of a stranger touching him, but thankfully he fell asleep on the way over and stayed asleep as I placed him on Diane's couch.
Diane gently felt his head, and cringed at how "slammed into his skull" his occiput was. We knew from an EEG that that was where all the seizure activity took place. Diane continued to palpate and ever so gently adjust E's head, chest, and pelvis. Most of the issues were in his head though. It was amazing to watch her work. I will admit I was skeptical at how this could work at all. My brief experience with neurologists led me to feel that not even the smartest scientists could explain WHY a person has seizures, why they could be so different person to person, and most importantly, why they seemed to start in an otherwise healthy person.
As Diane gently adjusted Little E, his whole little body unfurled in front of us. He was already asleep and appeared relaxed already, but with each slight movement from Diane, his breathing would become deeper, his chest would open, his shoulders dropped, his entire brow seemed to take on another shape.It was absolutely amazing.

When she was finished, Diane just smiled at me and told me that she felt he really released a lot of whatever he was holding on to. That night I took him home and put him to sleep in my bed with us (when the seizures became bad again, we brought him back to sleep with us, for fear he'd hurt himself in the middle of the night). That very night we noticed that he didn't have any night time seizures. Typically, he would seize for brief 15-30 second intervals as he drifted off, sometimes as many as 20 times a night. The next day, Little E had no seizures.

We wondered, is the medication dose finally right, or did all those gentle head manipulations actually DO something? We watched and waited. Still, no seizures.
After a few weeks, I ever so gradually started to decrease the medication dose. Still no seizures. By the beginning of summer, I felt brave enough to completely wean E off his already incredibly low dose. Still, no seizures.
We continued to see Diane throughout the summer, and have since really dropped off from his adjustments. Still, no seizures. Whatever she did really worked for our little guy, and we are eternally grateful.

In the thick of it

The first trimester for me means:

incredible fatigue (8pm bedtimes, every night)
incredible nausea (heaving ~ 4-5 times a day, with actual vomit maybe 3 times a week)
no energy or will power to work out (although the retching is keeping my abs firm!)
the need to eat something every 1.5 hours or I will have hell to pay

Woo hoo! As you can imagine, I've been a ball of fun around here lately. Work has been nice though. Births have been lovely (and none-too-long), and with a little homeopathic Nux Vomica, constant snacking and carbonated beverages, I feel fine for a few hours at a time.

Today was a sensory overload day.
I walked into the office and smelled one of those especially fine toddler diapers being changed right then and there. Whoooo, stinky!
I had a quick break in the day so I went to Plum Market to get something to eat because I foolishly forgot to bring food with me. I saw a gorgeous 2 year old sitting in a cart while her mama scooped soup from the hot bar. I smiled at the girl and thought she had a strange look on her face. 30 seconds later the poor kid was puking everywhere, tho silently. Her mama didn't notice at first. I ran over with a handful of napkins and another carry-out soup cup to catch the gratuitous vomit. Holy cow, I nearly lost it myself. I shouted for a mop and snatched more napkins.
Ay yi yi.
I finished up eating a few plain and salty potato chips (which seem to neutralize the ever present urpy feeling) and a soda.
When I came back to the office, I noticed flecks of vomit on my pants cuffs during a prenatal. Lovely!
Strange how many items of my clothing have remnants of other people's bodily fluids. ;)

Now I'm at home in my jammies. Catching up on emails, posting a very lame blog post and about to get the kids in bed. No vomit on my pants.