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Generic Update

Erin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:13:40 +0000

Time for another update. Heidi is officially walking! She started about 2 weeks ago, and now she can take 20-30 steps by herself. She can say lots of words, too, even if few of them are discernible to people outside our family. People outside our family would be able to understand night-night, bye-bye, cheese, baba (bottle), Dada, and Mama. We can also understand more, Tru, dog, bird, Cheerios, car, down, up, and diaper. However, mostly when she says these words, she’s repeating after us.

I have had irritational (industrial or environmental) bronchitis since July 4th — that’s 10 days now! We shot off fireworks of our own after the city-sponsored fireworks, and the smoke got to me. I’ve had a sore throat and have been coughing and hacking. I bought a bottle of chloraseptic spray about 4 days ago, and half the bottle is gone already. I can’t wait until my throat heals. Fireworks are SO not worth this. Next year, I’m staying inside or wearing a face mask.

Tru starts Pre-K/K4 in 27 days! She has a bookbag and a lunchbox with matching thermos, and she is so excited. Her teacher is young and excited about teaching, and we already know that one boy in her class is the son of the 3rd grade teacher at the Christian private school she’s going to. I can’t wait, either!

We are in the process of performing some much-needed home repairs and upgrades. I began tiling both bathrooms today and hope to be finished within the next 4-6 days. After that, we’ll be getting new countertops, getting a new backsplash, and repairing the deck that I almost burned down last year.

Happy birthday to my twin sisters Allison (Ally) and Kerri! 26 — WOW! Happy birthday to my stepmom, Melissa!

Update #4: EKG and EEG both normal

Erin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:50:53 +0000

We got the results from the EKG and the EEG today, and both were normal! This means that Tru’s episode wasn’t due to a heart arrhythmia or defect or a seizure disorder like epilepsy. Great news! We were told the EEG results wouldn’t be back until next week, but it’s a big relief to have gotten them back earlier.

Update #3: Tru’s EEG this morning

Erin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:33:38 +0000

We had Tru’s EEG to measure brain activity this morning. An EEG (Electroencephalography) records the electrical activity of neurons firing in the brain. EEGs are especially effective at diagnosing epilepsy and other seizure disorders. In preparation for the test, we had to keep Tru awake until 1 AM last night. Wonderful, sweet Mike let me sleep from 8 PM to 11 PM. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so the four of us (after Heidi woke up from a very late nap) watched Star Trek: The Next Generation until 1 AM. Tru conked out quite easily. This morning, I had to wake her at 5 AM and keep her awake until her 9 AM appointment, so we were quite tired by the end of the test.

Tru films Heidi before the test.

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Tru preparing for the test. The nurse took her to the test room and explained the procedure while I was in the bathroom. The chair Tru is sitting in is for the mother to hold the child if the child is too distraught to lay in bed. We did not have to use it.

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The nurse is applying the leads to Tru's scalp with a waxy conductive material.

Tru having her head wrapped.

During the test.

The nurse scrubbed Tru’s scalp with a q-tip and put leads all over it with a gunky, conductive substance. Tru did not like being dirty one bit. The nurse then wrapped her head so that the leads would stay put, and Tru didn’t like this either. I thought she would have fun laughing at how silly the test was, but she was just too tired and cranky to enjoy it.

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First, the nurse measured her brain activity with Tru lying quietly on the bed. Then she asked Tru to close her eyes for a minute. Next, Tru had to blow a pinwheel for 4 minutes. I demonstrated to get her started and intermittently to keep her going, and I was totally out of breathe. I don’t know how Tru managed to do it for so long! The nurse said that 4 minutes is usually a pipe dream in a child as young as Tru, but she did blow most of that time. Next, she measured Tru’s brain activity while flashing her open and closed eyes with a strobe light with the light strobing at different intervals. Finally, Tru rested with the lights off for about 30 minutes. The hope was that she would fall asleep, but she never did go completely to sleep.

Tru is appalled at the state of her hair.

When we were finished, Tru’s hair was very dirty and gunky! She was not a happy camper, but Chicken McNuggets and Sprite cures anything. We immediately went to McDonald’s for lunch and home for a nap. Now that we’re awake, all of us are feeling much better! We should get the results of the EEG in about a week and a half. Cross your fingers!

Healthy Tru and Crawling Heidi

Erin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:29:59 +0000

I took this video of Heidi crawling this morning, and Tru wanted to be on video, too. She is feeling much better after her 2-day stomach bug.

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Tru is sick, and Heidi is growing.

Erin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:11:38 +0000

First things first! New pictures of Heidi on page 2 of the Tru and Heidi 2009 album.

Poor Tru is sick. We spent all night Sunday night and Monday morning consoling her each time she threw up and cleaning her off. She took three baths and I changed the sheets 6 times that night. Monday morning, we got some Zofran (anti-nausea) into her and she did fine all day. She had to stick to a strict BRAT diet–bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast, in addition to Gatorade and juice. She was fine all night last nigt, but first thing this morning she chugged a cup of juice and promptly threw up again. Zofran and the BRAT diet again today!

Mike was sick yesterday, too, and stayed home from work. Heidi has a stuffed-up nose, and I had to take Seiko to the vet yesterday for an eye infection. Everybody in the family was sick except me!

Heidi has done quite a few new things lately. She started crawling backward at 8 months old, and within the past week, she’s learned to crawl forward. She can say Mama, Dada, and Nana, but I’m sure she doesn’t understand what she’s saying. She’s started eating more solid food, as evidenced by the pictures linked to above. She loves mashed potatoes and carrots, as well as bready things like pancakes. She’s got two teeth and may be working on one more. She can pull herself up with a little support, and she can stand and cruise a little, too. She’ll be 10 months old on Friday!

Update #2: Tru’s EKG Today

Erin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:54:49 +0000

Tru got her EKG today. It went well, but we don’t have any results yet. Here are pictures of her at the doctor’s office yesterday and getting her EKG today.

Update #1 concerning Tru’s fainting spell/seizure

Erin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:41:38 +0000

Strange thing happened at the doctor’s office. Dr. Zbell, Tru’s regular doctor who could not see us today, said, upon hearing that we’d left the ER early last night, “I know Dr. Bryant really wanted you to stay last night.” Funny, Dr. Bryant told me on the phone last night that it would be fine if I left and I could just come into the office in the morning. She never told me that we should stay, even when I told her I was calling to make sure I wasn’t making a dumb decision by considering leaving early. Apparently after that, she talked to the other doctors and lamented that we left. Oh, well. So nice of her to give me bad advice and then condemn the choice I made based on her advice. The doctors are going to run some tests assuming that it could have been either a fainting spell or a seizure. She’s going to have an EKG tomorrow to look for heart arrhythmias, and later this week she’ll have a CT scan and an EEG to measure brain activity. They took blood today to look for an infection and possible anemia, but all her blood tests came back normal. We’ll keep updating as we find things out.

Tru passed out at dinner last night.

Erin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:38:45 +0000

We had a scary night last night. We’d almost finished dinner when Tru looked at Mike and very confusedly said, “Daddy?” She just shut down and started leaning over. She fell out of her chair, and Mike had to catch her. She was shaking or twitching or something, and when she came to, she was very confused and unresponsive. We didn’t know whether it was a seizure or she had just passed out. She was looking all over the place and shaking, and she wouldn’t answer our questions. It took about 5 minutes before she was back to normal. We called 911, and the paramedics checked her blood pressure and oxygen levels, which were fine, when they got here. They stuck around asking questions for about ten minutes while we calmed down. Tru had been fine the whole time, so we drove to the ER ourselves. We got there about 9 and by 10:15, we still hadn’t even been triaged. By that time, we’d talked to Mike’s stepbrother who is a doctor. He assured us that it probably wasn’t a seizure, and Tru’s pediatrician told us we could take her home and come in to the doctor’s office the next morning. She’s got an appointment for 2:15.

She spiked a fever of 102 F 2 days ago, and she got a pretty good bump on the head with the car door about a week ago. I’m going to ask if either one of those events could have sparked this episode. I’m fairly certain it wasn’t food-related, though, because she ate and drank normally all day yesterday. I’ll update after the appointment.

I sprained my ankle.

Erin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:31:46 +0000

I sprained my ankle somehow. I don’t remember what I did, but apparently, I did it twice. This morning, I noticed after getting up off the floor after changing Heidi’s diaper that my ankle was stiff and sore, but walking around on it seemed to loosen it up, and the pain stopped. A couple of hours later, after changing Heidi’s diaper again, I noticed that the pain was back and much worse. I can’t point my toe up without being in very bad pain, so I’ve got my ankle wrapped up in an ace bandage. It’s not easy to hobble after a 9 month old with only one good leg!

Our little hellion.

Erin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:25:50 +0000

Tru has been a devil’s child lately. While she had RSV, she would not stop touching Heidi’s toys and handing them to her. As careful as we were, washing them every time we witnessed this happen, we couldn’t keep Heidi from getting sick. So Heidi’s battling Tru’s RSV now. She doesn’t have a fever, but she is developing a slight ear infection. Her doctor put her on amoxicillin with strict instructions to be on the lookout for erythema multiforme like Tru gets when she takes penicillin. So far, so good. No signs of reaction yet.

Yesterday, I moved a plant from the dining room into the toy room so that it could get some better sunlight. The plant is a peace lily that I brought back to Huntsville from my grandmother’s funeral. I stuck my head in the toy room after dinner yesterday to find that Tru had pulled off about 60% of the leaves, shredded them, and thrown them all over Heidi in her exersaucer like confetti on a partygoer. She was very apologetic when I started crying and told her how much the plant meant to me. When we were getting ready for bed, she told me that when it gets to be my birthday, she will buy me a new special plant.

This morning. she found the Elmer’s glue. She took things out of that same drawer and glued them to the front of our brand new refrigerator! At least Elmer’s is water based. I couldn’t punish her too badly, though, because she took responsibility for her actions and said she was sorry. She’s either becoming much more repentant lately or much more manipulative. I guess only time will tell.

I sure hope my poor peace lily pulls through.

Update @2:46 PM: Tru pulled another leaf off my plant.