Kimmie's Broken Arm

For the very first time in her life Kimmie had an injury that didn't have to do with a seizure. She fell on the playground. She broken her growth plate. The doctors told us that her bruise rivaled some hockey players. It healed nicely without any major things. But it sure caused drama in our home.

Help Mom it is an Emergency

This has been a really crazy week. My kids are off track this week, so that should say it all. I really would like to start it all over but I really don't want to go through this week again. Monday Johnny got sick. So I stayed home with him. He still wasn't feeling too great on Tuesday but he was really fine just a little clingy and not eating a lot yet. I have been feeling really extra tired lately and keep falling asleep at a drop of a hat. I didn't know what was wrong with me so I went to the doctor Tuesday after and got a work up done. I happened to have had to take both kids and they climbed all over me during the visit. The doctor said that she would be tired dealing with those two. She ran everything imagionable and ordered a sleep test for me. A funny side note is they went to take my blood and Kimmie says I want to help so the guy givers her my other arm and hands her the elastic band thing and gloves and said go ahead. Not realizing Kimmie really knows what she is doing. He took my blood right as he finished she asked for the butterfly (a type of needle) to do her side. He told her next time. Believe me next time I will make sure not to take my daughter. Anyway, yesterday I got up to go to work and Erik said he didn't feel good. He was a little pale so I told him to call into work (he was suppose to close) and I went to work. One hour later I got a call from Kimmie,

"Mom it is an emergency help."

Me, "Kimmie what is wrong?"

Kimmie, "Daddy it throwing up bad. He really needs your help."

I grabbed my stuff and out the door I went. When I arrived home Kimmie had everything under control. She had taken her little play laptop and wrote Daddy Hansen on the top. She put an X for every time he had throw up. She put on the rubber gloves from the whole taking mommies blood the day before thing and was taking his temperature (with her doctor kit therometer). Erik looked like please help me. She was so cute. I wish I would have gotten a photo of her all cute.

My doctor called back checking on me from the day before's experiences. I said I am fine but here is my problem and I told her all about Erik. So she said bring him in. His blood sugar was sky high and he was starting to go in and out of small seizures. They would start at his fingers and move up his arm and go away. But he had a lot of them. The doctor gave him shots and kept him for a while to monitor him. They told me if he still didn't keep anything down to go to the emergency room. Thank heavens we didn't have to go there last night. He is finally doing a little better. Also thank heavens for the new neighbors I have that dropped everything to help me yesterday.

Oh, BTW the test results came back and I am fine I have a very big vitamin B12 deficiency and so I had a shot yesterday I am scheduled for another in three weeks I have new vitamins and if it doesn't come up in six weeks we will start a more rigerous shot schedule.

I can't wait for school to start again.

Fun Run

Sorry that it has taken me a little bit to put up a new post. Things have been a little crazy. Two weeks ago on the same day no less both Johnny and Kimmie brought home school fund-raisers. You would think with them going to different schools they would at least be on different days. Usually I just order something from my kids, I may ask my Mom but that is about the extent of our fund-raising school skills. But this year was a little different. We couldn't afford to do both fund-raisers and Kimmie's was so cute that I asked both Grandma's to donate one for each child and I bought one thing from Johnny and donated to Kimmie. Kimmie's was so fun that I had to blog about it. Her school is really big on physical fitness. I lot it! They do a great job! So they did a Fun Run and each child got sponsors to donate for them running around the outside of the school boundaries. Kimmie did great! They gave each child that participated a tee-shirt! I was so excited to see them out doing something rather than selling cookie dough or wrapping paper or something. Congratulations Kimmie for going around twice and raising $23.04!

Before and After photos

Chicago II

I will be posting a lot in the next couple weeks about Chicago. It was an amazing trip and so incredible. I learned so much and am really grateful for all the prayers, work, donations, love and everything else that helped us get there. I have more hope for Kimmie in the last week than I have had for years.

Some interesting things I learned...

Denial buys the fime needed for a person to find the internal strength and external supports needed in order to accept that loss has occurred.

Pain is the solution not the problem.

One doctor told us he doesn't like the term "brain damage" especially in children. He likes to think that after seizing for so long that the children's brains start to re-decorate. Kids can regenerate and do things that adults can't do. We just have to figure out where they placed everything. So Kimmie may put the forks in with the bathroom towels. All the info is there we just have to re-train or find where they put it.

This photo was taken by my friend Karen at the Nature Museum dinner the last night we were there.

Chicago

I can't belive how much this trip has changed me. It was worth everything we had to do to get here.

Kimmie is doing okay. She is really frustrating today. Lara came in town last night! Mainly to help me and she took Kimmie to the Shedd Aquarium this morning. She got there and was only there 2 minutes before she told Lara she was too tired and needed to go back. She complained enough that Lara took her back. It cost $75 round trip with tickets and cab fare for her to see two minutes and take a nap.

I have learned so very much. The doctor that we ended up seeing was Dr. Catherine Chiron. She was amazing! She has given me advice on how to improve her eating habits! She also complimented me on the amount of things we have tried to help get her seizure free. She is about 60-70% sure with changing one med that we have with one med that we bring in from Canada may change the balance of things and make her "SEIZURE FREE!" I can't believe those words came out of her mouth. For a doctor to tell us there is any posibility that she could be seizure free would be huge. Apparently she is the world's expert in seizure medication combinations. She is just an answer to my prayers.

There is so much more information although I am suppose to be in class already so I am going to cut this short.

Thank you everyone for helping make this possible.

Doctor Update

Last week when I went to my doctor to check up the spot under my ribs that the MRI found. My doctor found another lump in my neck. So while I was headed for a CT scan anyway she did my neck scan as well. I really like this new doctor. Erik has been seeing him for a while. She has a great way of getting things fixed without going overboard. She also takes the time to listen which is a huge thing to me.

Anyway, I got the results back. My chest is fine. They don't know why I have this black spot, they think it could be from the car accident I was in at 16 but they have no idea. It isn't causing any problems, and so it would be so invasive to find out what it exact is they will leave it alone. The one on my neck is a totally different problem. It is a benign tumor. They are trying to treat it with a strong medication. Hopeful that the medication will help it absorb into my system. If not after the ten days of medication they will biopsy it and remove it.

Thank you for everyone's prayers. It has been a really hard few weeks with this and I appreciate all the extra prayers and help that everyone has been doing for me and my family. Thank you!

Cancer Scare

A little over a month ago I found a lump on my left breast. I don't know if I should say that on a blog but that is where it was. I had a routine appointment with my doctor a week or so later so I just ignored it. My doctor found it and put me on a high dose of Vitamin E. She said that if it didn't go down to call her back and they would schedule a Mammogram and a Ultrasound. So I did that after it didn't go away. I went in for my ultrasound and mammo and the results we that they couldn't see anything but they could feel something there. So they sent me to get a breast MRI. I was suppose to have the results back last Thursday. Although they weren't back and my doctor was out of town for the weekend. So I just received the results a few minutes ago. I am still waiting for my doctor but knowing how nervous I am about this due to the family history the nurse told me the results. The lump is scar tissue. We don't know at this point from what or what they are going to do about it. Erik somehow remembers something being hooked up to me when I hemridged after Johnny. But I don't remember that but I was virtually dead so I wouldn't trust my view of anything that happened at that point. But regardless it is not cancerous! That is the main thing! I am so very grateful for all of the prayers and love everyone has showed me. I couldn't have made it through this without you. It has been a crazy few weeks and thank you for hanging in there with me.

Life update

I don't know why this week has been so crazy. I feel like I haven't had more than two minutes. I don't really know why. It just seems to be one of those weeks. I think I am still a little drained from being sick a couple weeks ago. Kimmie got sick at about 3:30 this morning. I really hate waking up to sick kids. She was fine by about 10:00 although she was already out of school and I didn't want to risk it. Johnny is doing well although Bethany is out of town this week and he hasn't stopped asking when they will be getting back. He is so sad that his best friend Tyler is in Disneyland. I will be really happy to let him know that they are starting their trip home tomorrow.

My legislative bill cleared the house! I am so grateful for everyone's support and letters. As soon as I know the Senate number I will ask again to write you senators (I think it changes numbers for the senate although I don't know). We cleared the house unanimously. I can't believe that we have gotten it this far. Last year we kept getting railroaded in the house committee and it kept getting pushed back on the house floor list. I am really proud that we are making a difference.