Best news first

The MRI went well, and we should have results in a few days.  Although Josephine was quite agitated upon waking from the anesthesia, she recovered within the hour and was happy all day.  I met a really neat and inspiring person while waiting.  I enjoyed talking to her, and it helped the wait go more quickly.

Now for the bummer news.  Madalyn had a small rash yesterday. I sent a note to school, reminding them of the risk of "Steven Johnson's Syndrome" from her seizure medicine....figuring I was overreacting, but nervous anyway.  Today, the rash was worse.  I dropped her off at school, and made an appointment for her to see our pediatrician this afternoon.  I talked to Michelle (school nurse and much more!:)) during the day and told her we were going to the doctor.  She looked up our medicine and the side affects to be familiar with the situation.  Did I mention she is awesome?

I picked her up early for the appointment.  At that time the rash was significantly worse.  Dr. Denney looked at it and because it did not fit into any "normal" rash, he felt we needed to call Dr. Parker and probably stop the seizure medicine.  I don't suggest googling Steven Johnson's Syndrome, but if you do you will see why they don't take chances.  Basically, he said that the rash doesn't have to look any particular way for it to become Steven Johnsons, so we have to stop the medicine.  Dr. Parker called him back immediately and agreed.  She reminded me to keep the Diastat on hand in case she has a seizure since we are having to quit without tapering and can't start another medicine until the rash is gone. 

So, the bummer is that we finally got to the therapeutic dose, and now we have to stop.  The blessing is the rash is responding to the Benadryl and has not gotten any worse tonight.  This is good, because if it had gotten significantly worse, or showed up on any mucous membrane, it would have meant going to the ER.  The other good news is that we were able to see Dr. Denney today.  He was able to talk to our neurologist immediately, and we know what to do.  The other huge blessing is that she started with a rash in China that looked similar to yesterday's.  While in China, I emailed it to Dr. Denney and he thought it looked like a viral rash.  And it went away on it's own. I'm so thankful the need to stop her medicine waited until we were back home, with any medical support we may need!