Aspynne.....

Ok, so I know that there are many people out there praying for Aspynne and our family..... Some that know exactly every detail of what's transpired, others who were just asked to jump in and pray for us this weekend at VCC.

Either way, I thought that regularly updating this blog with updates as we move forward in this process would just be the easiest way to keep everyone "in the know."

For those of you who don't know what's exactly going on, it all started July 13th. Aspynne had a seizure in the morning, while at home, shortly after she awoke. It was very chaotic, as I had never seen a seizure, much less ever held my child in my arms while she appeared as if she were going to die any second. I fell to my knees, begging God not to take her from me. We called 911, who responded in less than 5 minutes, in which time the seizure had long since ended, and thus began our journey.

Several hours that day were spent at the pediatrician's office being monitored, blood tested, etc... Everything seemed fine. The pediatrician scheduled us for an EEG, and got us an appointment with a Pediatric Neurologist for two days later. Aspynne had to be "sleep deprived" for the EEG because they needed to get some sleeping brain waves, so that was an undertaking, but she did amazingly well. She went right to sleep in mommy's arms, and didn't cry once when they were gluing or removing the 21 nodes that were attached to her head.

The EEG was clear. She does, in fact, have quite "mature" brain activity for her age. (Whatever that means). The Neurologist assured us that sometimes these things just happen in children. Freak accidents that you never know the cause of.... We talked about the what if's, and we went on about our way, knowing that she was only about 25% to have a second seizure.

It was really rough those first few days after the seizure. I started out not being able to look at her without seeing her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Then I became fearful of her every step. Finally, I was scared to be alone with her...my own child. I asked for healing, strength, understanding, peace. After a few days life returned to normal, and it was just something really scary that happened once upon a time.

Then came August 10th. Seizure #2. I was at the office when I got the call from Bob asking me to come home. He had stepped out for lunch, and the nanny had gotten her through it. It was identical to the first. Around a minute, generalized, all over, typical tonic-clonic seizure. We called the Neurologist and basically got a "we'll put it in her chart" and a "let us know if you guys decide you want to medicate her." Needless to say, those weren't the answers we were looking for.

A nice little chat with our pediatrician got us another visit with the Neurologist (that we didn't care for to start with), but as I quickly found out, I don't have many options. Children's Medical Center has to have a board decide if you can even be a patient of theirs, and then you have to wait months to get an appointment. While no board decision is needed to get into Cook Children's, it isn't much of a shorter wait. We got an appointment for Oct. 27th, and decided in the meantime to go ahead and take the next step in having an MRI.

We went to the neurologist Friday morning, and he basically told us that he "didn't have anything to tell us that he didn't tell us last time." We did, however, get to ask some questions about the upcoming MRI, so at least the appointment wasn't completely in vain.

Yesterday, August 21st, marked seizure #3. This time, only 11 days after the last. We were visiting my parent's house for the day, and we hadn't been there just a few minutes when she had this episode. I knew from the moment I got her up yesterday morning that she "wasn't right." I even told Bob that we need to keep an eye on her because I just felt something was wrong. Aspynne walked right up to me and sat down before the seizure came on. She looked into my eyes as if to tell me it was about to happen. I saw it, and reached for her head right as it went down to the floor. Same story as the first two....identical in almost every way.

This morning, Sunday, August 22nd, we had a large host of individuals pray over her at church during service. Elders, pastors, friends, teachers, and several others all joined forces in asking God to heal her. I know he heard our prayer. While it is painful, I know that he is in control of both her and this situation, and I know that he can heal her.

Tomorrow, we go back to the pediatrician for her 18 month checkup, get some shots, let her know about seizure #3, and talk about our game plan to get our appointment at Cook Children's moved up.

Thursday, we have an MRI scheduled for Aspynne at Presbyterian of Plano at 9am. She will have to go under anesthesia for the procedure, and we will be there a few hours, but don't forsee any reason why we won't be home shortly after noon (after a trip to VCC where they will be hosting a day of prayer & fasting).

The MRI could show us what's wrong...tumor, cyst, bleed, spinal fluid leak, malformation, etc. Or...it could not. If it does not, we'll be focusing more on if we think we need to medicate her with anti-seizure meds, which is a whole other ballgame. I'll fill you in on all the lovely risks of those medicines next time. For now, I've just recounted so much of this that I am spent.

Please continue to lift us up in your thoughts and prayers. I ask that you pray for Aspynne and her healing. I also ask that you pray for Addyson, her sister, and her patience and understanding. Addyson starts Kindergarten tomorrow, and she hasn't been getting quite the attention she deserves lately because of how tied up we have been with Aspynne. I also ask that you keep Bob & I in your thoughts as we continue to try to be strong for our daughters and get answers for our family.

Thanks again to every single one of you that prayed over us today. It was truly amazing.