Remember 9-11

It just passed...8:45 am. I wasn't even thinking about it until I looked down at my clock and saw it was 8:44. This was truly a sad day in American history and I hope we haven't forgotten what was taken from us that day. Justice must be served for those innocent who lost their lives.

Take a minute to just think back on what happened. If case you forgot, go here:
CNN Timeline

Dave Winter

A great friend of mine, Dave Winter, passed away yesterday from his battle with cancer. His obituary is online at http://www.colefuneralchapel.com/RecentObituaries.htm. Although you probably don't know him, he is truly a guy who was larger than life and enjoyed his wife and son a lot. Goodbye Dave. I miss you already.

Paxton update...

Sorry for taking so long in posting this update. Paxton went to see the neurologist at U-M on his birthday, August 5th. It was not the most exciting way to spend your birthday, but he actually seemed to be OK with it. The neurologist, Dr. Leber, asked us some questions and then asked to have another EEG scheduled and we decided to keep Paxton on a medication called Kepra. If he doesn't have any seizures for the 2 years he is going to be on the medicine, he has a 70% chance of never having another seizure again. If he can get through the next year when he is off the medicine, the chances of being "cured" are over 90%. So we are giving him medicine 2 times a day and watching him closely. We feel so fortunate to be in a state with an excellent hospital like U-M.

Sunday seizure

Paxton had another seizure this morning and is sleeping right now. We will post more later.

A Busy Day

I am totally exhausted from quite the eventful day. I woke up this morning and went straight to the computer to work from home until Parker and I had to leave for his sports camp. The sports camp is part of C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor and is organized through the Dance Marathon program at the University of Michigan. Today, Parker's sport was bowling. After I dropped him off I had a few minutes to kill so I stopped in to see my grandparents. They were both in a lot of pain from a bout of shingles and a nasty middle of the night fall. They were still pleasant to visit and for some crazy reason they enjoy it when I visit. After a short visit, I made it over to my orthodontist appointment. New wires (they keep saying 18 like it means something to me, but I do know the higher the number the stronger the wire) were placed along with a couple more brackets in the back. Dr. Brust is a great guy and I am enjoying (as much as you can enjoy) getting my teeth fixed by him and his staff. After the appointment, I had to hustle back to get Parker. Since he had another appointment that afternoon, he had to come with me to work for a little while. I got him a laptop and he brought a DVD to watch. He was really good for me as I worked on my projects. We took off at 2:30 to go across the street and get his new brace. It went well, but I was definitely starting to lose steam by that point. When we finally left there, we went back to my office to finish out the day (and his movie). After getting everything together, we were running late getting home. After scarfing down a quick bite for dinner, we headed out the door as a family to Vacation Bible School with Heather's parents' church. As the boys were in VBS, Heather and I headed down to a nearby park to read more in our book on epilepsy. We managed to read through two more chapters in the two hours we had alone. After getting back home with the boys, we all bounced together on the trampoline. I actually did a back flip and landed on my feet! I haven't even tried that in probably 15 years. I couldn't believe it. The boys thought I was awesome and Heather rolled her eyes. She probably saw ER written all over that stunt. It was a very crazy day and now I am off to bed!

I REMEMBERED!!!

Hey, I remembered my password to get into the blog again. I was just about ready to give up and start a new blog. There is so much that has happened since I last posted I don't really know where to begin.

I suppose an update on Paxton is the most important. Last week, while on vacation at our friends Brad & Lisa's house, Paxton had two epileptic seizures. This was pretty significant to us for a couple reasons: a) he hadn't had any seizures for over 13 months; and b) we were there to see them first-hand this time. We took him to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing at the advice of the nurse in our doctor's office. They checked him over and consulted with his neurologist at U of M. We were given a prescription and told to continue on our vacation while keeping a watchful eye on him. Since he had the two seizures he has been fine, but we are still wondering what is going on with him. He has an appointment to see the neurologist again on, of all days, his birthday in August. Assuming I can remember my password, I'll post another update then.

Parker finished off the school year strong. Heather and I were both very happy with the progress he made from the beginning of the year to the end. He is still lacking in concentration and we have some work to do over this summer to get him ready for 2nd grade. However, we are glad that he had so many people helping him throughout Dundee Elementary, including his teacher, Mrs. Stahl, and the resource room teacher, Mrs. Hawkins.

All is good with Paxton

Today's surgery for Paxton went perfectly. He is bouncing around the house like crazy. This is our biggest concern right now. The doctors said he needs to take it easy for a couple days and he is not the kind of kid who can take it easy. As far as the MRI goes, we will know more after we schedule an appointment with the neurologist. What we do know is that there was nothing glaring that was life threatening (i.e. a brain tumor or clot). Thank you for the prayers everyone.

Lots going on

Wow! It has been so long I forgot my password to get back into this. Here is a quick update on Paxton. He has been tentatively diagnosed with Epilepsy. He has had two seizures, not the big kind where he would shake around, but he just zones out and then passes out for a minute, and then he is just groggy and wants to sleep. We took him for an EEG after the first one that didn't turn up anything. But after it happened again, we returned to UM's child neurology and the doctors thought he should have an MRI. That is scheduled for this Thursday in the late morning. He is going to have to be put to sleep since they need him to be perfectly still for the whole hour he is in that little tube. To top it off, he has to have a minor surgery on that day also for something unrelated to the epilepsy. The doctor performing that surgery was kind enough to work everything out for the same day so that he would not need to be put to sleep twice. Let's pray it all runs smoothly. We hope after the MRI we will have a better understanding of what is causing these seizures. He is also going to have to have another EEG done, but he took the first one so smoothly I am sure he can handle the next.

I will get more up about this after Thursday.