Justinich Look-alike Meter

Funny that between Gabriel and Evan, Gabriel looks more like his dad and Evan looks both of us.

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An Eventful Thanksgiving

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving with the in-laws, it was small at our house and we watched movies after having dinner. The fun started around 10pm when I was laying with Evan in our bed. We were back to back when he started crying like he was in pain and I look at him and his eyes are doing the jumping thing and he is staring all the way to the left and knew immediatley that he was having a seizure, so I yell at Rudy to get in the room. I mention that we need to get the Diastat just in case and he say well it has not been 5 minutes it is only 10:09, so then Evan is still crying and staring to the left with his head turned to the left, it is like he was aware of what was going on but could not control his body. So then he starts with the gagging and vomitting and we get the Diastat. I just froze because I was not sure if I should give it to him and we were coming up on 8 minutes now so I decided just to call 911 and while I was on the phone with them he started coming out of the seizure. We brought him out to the couch to wait for the paramedics who arrived in a pretty decent amount of time. They took his vitals etc. and we were transported to Sutter Memorial Hospital, Evan was starting to return to his normal self and shortly after we arrived he fell asleep and woke up when they put the IV in but was asleep again a minute or two later. They did his blood work and found that his Depakote level was low so we are increasing his dose again and have to follow up with the dr. We left the ER around 3am, and I can't sleep even though I am really tired.
All in all, it was a good experience with the paramedics and the hospital although it was a long wait as usual. I think I know now that I should administer the Diastat and then call 911 if it does not stop or if he has other abnormal symptoms. In this case he was fine afterward and we probably did not need to go to the hospital but we were scared and unsure of what to do because has never had a prolonged seizure like that before and this whole thing of starting out with the eye movements and then progressing to the vomitting/gagging is a new development for us.
I think what bothers me the most is that his seizures are progressing and doing different more serious things even with the medication. I don't know if I will ever get used to dealing with the stuff we deal with because of Evan's special needs. So I have to say that I am thankful that my son is OK, that we are home and not in the hospital, for my husband and also my in laws who are watching Gabriel so we could deal with Evan. Speaking of Gabriel I wonder how he felt seeing his brother wheeled out of the house into an ambulance. Rudy said he seemed fine but it had to have freaked him out a bit. I will talk to him later today when I pick him up from Grandmas.
Update*** I spoke with Grandma and she said Gabriel was really quiet last night and she asked him what was wrong and he said "my brother" so he was really scared and worried. So much for an 8 year old to have to deal with, it is a lot for anyone to have to deal with really. I don't really know how Evan is going to be since he is still asleep. I am taking advantage of the time to just get some cleaning done and reflect on what happened and what I would do differently next time. Rudy and I talked about having a plan and basically we will give the Diastat at 5 minutes and then call 911 if it does not stop. I think we will be more calm next time and follow this plan that we have in place. Pretty crazy to be thinking I will be more calm the next time I have to call 911 for my son, but this is just part of the special needs world, I knew that Evan had a higher risk of having seizures and I knew that there would be the chance that I would have to call 911 for him. Knowing all this and talking with friends, hubby and Dr about it certainly did not make it any easier to do and I did panic a little bit when it was actually happening. As it usually is with Evan that just when I think we are going down a smoother path we get a big bump in the road, but we will get over this to. Rudy said he hopes there is not a next time and I said I am sure there will be, we have a special needs child who has only been having visible seizures since January and here it is only in the first year and we have had to call 911. While we can hope that it does not happen again we are now prepared with our plan of action. Enough talk about this incident. I am going to go clean up my house and check on my little boy.

Evan's Parent Teacher Conference

Well, on Monday 11-24 we had Evan's parent teacher conference for preschool and I will admit that I was very nervous about it. But it actually went really well.
Basically, Evan is on track to meet the goals that were set out for him in September. These goals are:
Drinking out of a regular cup and not tipping his head back while drinking
Using left hand to hold paper while coloring or using scissors
Toileting
Socializing with peers
Riding an adaptive bike

They keep a log at school and Evan has actually peed in the potty about six times at school, so now I am going to work on getting him some type of adaptive toileting system so that we can perhaps work on this at home as well. I would love to be done with diaper changes but I still have to figure out how Evan is going to tell me he is ready to go potty. I guess we will just have to put him on the toilet according to a schedule.

Evan loves other kids and does well playing with them
He is doing so well with drinking out of a cup and is not tipping his back too often and is able to take a verbal que to change the habit. We are however having problems with him working with his feeding therapist. He is totally non-compliant if she is there at school and tries to hit her, pushes his food away and just acts up. She is going to try it one more time and if he is the same way then we will see if she can see him at home instead.
Evan's teacher has a theory as to why this is happening, she thinks it is because Evan does not want to be different from other kids. At breakfast he does not like if the teacher brings his food to him already cut up, he wants to put his food on his plate and then let her cut it up.

At school they have a few different types of adaptive bikes but Evan does not like to ride them because they are different than what the other kids ride. They have a tricycle that has a second seat so one child can pedal and ride another child around on the bike. Evan tries to pull the other kids but gets frustrated because he is not able to pedal. When the teacher tries to get him to ride the adaptive bike he does not want to do it.
I think if Evan had any more language than he does now his frustrations would be a lot less, I always try to imagine what he is trying to tell me. I think it is great that he does not want to be different than other kids, I think it shows that he is aware of what is going on around him as well. And I am very glad that he does not get to discouraged easily either, this is something that will take him far.
One thing I am so nervous about is whether or not to put Evan in a special ed kindergarten or a regular ed kindergarten. I just feel that he will not be ready for it and the teachers seem to think that he will be. We do not have to decide until May and they will be setting up visits to various classrooms to help me make a decision.

Twilight Movie

Cynthia had a great time on Friday night as we went to see the movie Twilight. We both loved it. We went with my friend Francesca and a few other girls and we had fun. We topped it off with desert at The Cheesecake Factory and it was both of our first times there. It was yummy. One of the other girls brought her 5 week old baby so it was fun to hold a little one. My friend posted about going to see it again and I could almost do it. It was fun to do something with Cynthia.

Our new Cat

We have a cat - again. We were carving our pumpkins for Halloween on the front porch and we heard the meowing of this little kitten. I just have a soft heart for animals so we fed it and continued to do so for the next few days. I swore that we were not keeping it as a pet and it can be an outside cat. Well, it was cold outside so we let it come inside. And that was the beginning of the end.

The cat is now ours and we have again bought all of the needed items such as food and a litter box. This little contraption was given to us by Rudy's parents, and then we gave it to my grandma for her cat and she then gave it back to us. This new cat loves it. She is the sweetest kitty and is a bit scared of Evan though. She does not try to scratch or bite him though, she just runs away. Gabriel and Cynthia are pretty much hooked and they have litter box duty.
Our cat does not have a name yet(at least not one that I can post on here) I named her a name because she took a day or two to learn the litter box is where you do your business. It is all good now but she was almost sent to the pound because I am not going to have her going potty in my house. So for a name we are thinking Smoky or Tiger?

Friendship Spotlight

Ok, I am copying from my friend on this. I am sure she won't mind. I think this is a great idea. I don't have a picture though.

My first spotlight is going to be for my friend Karen Kiesel.

Let me tell you how we met.

We met when our two oldest sons were in Kindergarten together. While waiting to pick the boys up after school I would watch and be slightly envious of her having her two typical boys. We got to talking one day and she was saying how her almost 3 year old was not talking but she was not worried because her older son did not talk until 3 years old either. I really tried to foster this friendship because I really wanted be friends with moms of typical kids for Gabriel's sake. So that summer which would have been the summer of 2007 we began spending more and more time together and became friends and we both had two boys who were about the same age so it was nice. I just have to laugh because that summer Karen became the parent of a special needs child, or more correct her son was diagnosed, and she was brought into the world of special needs with me. Even though Evan and her son have different diagnosises I was so glad to be there to help her through the process of getting evaluations from Alta and the school district.

Fast forward to now and we are in a carpool together and most weeks we have a coffee or run errands together once a week. So here are the reasons Karen is a great friend and all around person.

1. She is always honest and straightforward
2. She listens
3. She gives ideas when I have a problem
4. She is always finding new ways to help her son
5. She always helps out with Gabriel in a pinch or just because
6. We treat each other for coffee every now and then
7. She makes me laugh
8. She understands my life
9. She is an awesome Mom
10. She finds ways to do things for her kids even when if seems impossible because of money or other reasons
11. She takes Taekwando

I am so grateful that when I tried to make friends outside of the special needs world I found Karen and now she has joined me in the special needs world we can be supportive of each other.

Stay Tuned to see who is in the spotlight next week.