A rough week

 After Eliana came home from the hospital she didn't seem to get better.  She was still sleep all day , not wanting to eat or drink anything.  We made her as much as we could but it wasn't enough.  She also started having a high fevers and her seizures started up again. So we called the Doctor and they insisted that she just drink more water.  So we did that for another day and she just wasn't getting any better.  She got to the point where she was throwing up and so week and frail. Eliana could hardly keep he head up. Not even a week after the surgery Eliana lost 5+ pounds. So at that point we took her in to the E.R. and they treated her for Dehydration and pain.  The prescribed her a strong pain medication. But it ended up helping with her pain and allowed her to actually start drinking.   Going on to 2 weeks after surgery she is still recovering and finally started eating. She is not back to her same old self but she's getting there slowly. Thank you for the Prayers and we are believing this week will be a great week for Eliana.  We LOVE you Eliana!

Eliana's Surgery

This week has been quite eventful.  On Monday Eliana had her Surgery to remove her Tonsils and adenoids.  We entered the hospital at 6:00 am on Monday and quickly got sent to a room.
    While we waited the Nurse said Ana could go to the play room.  It took Eliana a little while to get used to her environment . As soon as she did, I know her mind was taken off of why she was at the hospital and on to having fun !            
 

Eliana loves playing with this toy

After about 30 minutes of playing in the playroom we were called back to her room.  When we got there Eliana was giving a medication to sedate her. She drank her medicine and we noticed her start to get a little drowsy.  At first she seemed tired then she got kooky lol.  The weird thing is that she started seeing bugs? Yes, BUGS! Bee's , butterflies, ants... I was thinking is this normal?  he he he.  However , the situation Quickly turned for the worse.  She had calmed down a little bit and before she went into surgery she had a seizure.   Her daddy and I were in the room with her talking to her then all of a sudden she looks upward to the ceiling and stops responding.  We kept calling her name but she didn't acknowledge it.   We were afraid and almost called for the doctors when she came out of it.
If anyone  knows someone who has seizures you know that time feels as though it stands still, and those seconds turn into minutes and minutes turn into hours...  Although her seizure was fairly on the short side of the spectrum, it felt like forever... after about 20 seconds she came out of it and resumed what she was doing and that was checking out the bugs she was seeing...

  
It was surgery time... They wheeled off our Eliana to surgery.  We were pretty worried considering our baby just had a seizure right before leaving.  Momma and Daddy got a quick bite to eat and waited...and waited and waited. After 30 minutes it was time to see our Eliana.  The doctor told us her Adenoids and Tonsils were very enlarged and the removing them should help with her sleep apnea .

We got to see her and she was still heavily sedated. When she was trying to wake up she was really combative.  She was kicking and screaming and trying to get out of the bed.  So Daddy held her and was trying to talk to her and let her know we were there and not to be afraid.  It took her a while to come out of it but when she did she was ok.  She was crying and complaining  of the pain  but no seizures.

Because of her history with seizures and severity of them they kept her in ICU to keep a close on her . She was hooked up to an IV while we were there to keep her hydrated .   She drank a little bit and tried some Jello but for the most part she was getting her rest.  

Once the medication wore off all the pain came.  She was in so much pain. I wish in that moment I could just take it all away.     She would get her pain meds every 4 hours. It seemed to help for the first couple hours then that was it.  Eliana would fall asleep holding her throat saying it hurt. She slept Nearly the entire day and night.



Tuesday Morning came around she was discharged.  She did good throughout the night and was given the green light to go home ! Daddy came to pick us from the Hospital.
                                  She was happy .



Off she goes to recover
at home. Thank you everyone for all the prayers , The Surgery was a success and now for the recovery...

Sleep Apnea

Shortly after Eliana's massive seizure I noticed at night she would sometimes hold her breath.   3 years later and it has become sleep apnea.  Recently we've noticed she has been snoring very loud and sounds of like being choked.  It got to the point where we noticed she would hold her breath for long periods of time. My husband and i took her into the Dr to schedule a sleep study  

just checked in the sleep center

we bought her a new Doc shirt to make her feel extra special 

Ana's meal of choice.... SALAD!

and One Direction P.J.'s!

  After getting comfortable with the new environment Eliana got hooked up.  All these wire will detect seizures, what type of sleep she is in , oxygen levels and to see what type if any sleep apnea she is having.

The Results came in and i was and wasn't shocked! The study shows Eliana had stopped breathing 163 times  anywhere from 25-40 seconds at a time! I was so scared to here that my daughter was experiencing that! What makes things worse it that since the sleep study we have noticed that she has gotten even worse with her breathing and her asthma has been flaring up which doesn't help this situation.  At least we know the severity of this and we are going to have surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids.  We believe that after this short in and out surgery she will have more energy. she will do better in school and will help with her seizures!

A day to celebrate

May 21st is a Day to celebrate. Why do you ask?   Because it my daughter Eliana's birthday, 5th birthday to be exact! You see, There was a couple times when there was a chance she wasn't going to see this day.  Eliana has Epilepsy and she has had 2 massive seizures that nearly cost her precious life.  Doctors told us our Eliana wasn't going to make it through both times, They just didn't know how strong our Eliana is.  Elian miraculously pulled through! But the bumpy road did not end there. For the next 3 years she will endure pokes and pricks due to testing, a cancer scare, traveling all the way to California to UCLA, have learning and speech troubles in school, be evaluated for Autism and develop severe sleep apnea which lead her to stop breathing 163 times a night!  I didn't name everything that she has endured but just this what you see is so much for a 5 year old! This is why to our family Eliana's birthday day is a day to celebrate!

  The morning of Eliana's Birthday she woke up and was thrilled that she was 5! She Had Breakfast pancakes upon her request of course! Then she watched a half of an episode of Doc Mc Stuffins! Doc is her favorite cartoon because she too wants to be a doctor when she grows up! Then we were off for morning photo shoot.  We took some shots  around the house. And of course we HAD to incorporate the Doc stethoscope!

Eliana loves Doc Mc Stuffins , So I made here these OVER THE TOP Doc / Medical hair bows !These bows are PACKED with everything and mini doctors tools are even present in the bows!

















Jumping on the Trampoline and looking Fabulous!!

click to see where I purchased this Yard Stake

Here she is talking to her Grandma! I got this Epilepsy Awareness yard stake on etsy.

Before school she wanted to play on he scooter.  I was so lucky to get this shot of her looking back at me.  I love it!

Oh yeah I'm 5!!!

Now to go to school and pass out her birthday treats! Nope they're not cupcakes! They're these adorable chocolates.  There is one in the shape of a present and one in the shape of a medallion with a #5 in the center! We put them in small treat bags and added a topper with some scrapbook paper!

Here we are at Sho-Gun  Here they make the Japanese food right in front of you! 

 The Restaurant brought Eliana some ice cream with  a candle in it.

 Her cake!

 Our Family
 Eliana was BEYOND excited when she saw all of her Doc Mc Stuffins Gifts!

Eliana's Update

It's Been a While since I've hoped on here to share what has been going on with my daughter.  There has been a few ups and downs and some changes that has taken place.

 So where do I start?

Well How about school... The last you heard Eliana may be having to go into full-time Special Education. Well that has changed, She now will have a aid that will help her for one hour through the day with the things that she struggles with.  Going through the first year of school I thought she did fairly well. There is still many things that she can not do.  When I go into her classroom you see all the kids art work on the wall and Eliana's is the easiest to spot becuse she is the one that has noting or close to nothing on the page or she can't write her name, Identify letters ,number and colors. However she is able to stay in class and see the other kids perform at or above grade level and that can be a good way for her to push herself and to have goals.                                                                                     She is in speech therapy at school But I just don't know if it is actually helping. I was really surprised when Eliana told me that they were not even seeing her.  I was shocked that no one notified me.  I have noticed her speech slipping a little. And it is strange because sometimes my baby can talk perfectly fine and most days she is stuttering so much she cant get a complete sentence out with out.  For a while she opted to just not talk. and I'm so happy that she is out of that. Our family is very vocal and I'm hoping that we are setting the example for her to speak and explain what it is that she wants. For so long people would tell me they never heard her speak and it wasn't until one day I took a step back and told our eldest daughter to really notice if she was talking or not. It sounds really strange but my daughter would just look at me or murmur and noise and to me it was her talking because I knew exactly what she wanted without hearing the exact words... My daughter was the same way.  We realized it was true she didn't really talk and we had to make some changes. Even know I have to check myself when I find here slipping into that habit  of not speaking.  Overall she is becoming more vocal . We are working with her to assist her in her education and finding ways to reach her.

This is an ongoing process for us all, and she may get frustrated with things but my baby alwasy has a smile on her face and keeps pressing forward dispite the hardships she has in her way. Ilove her for that amongst so many other things. She so strong.. I love you Eliana.

Does anyone know of any online course and games to help children with speech and letter number and color recognition? Please leave it below and I'll check it out!