Mardi Gras

Sent from my iPhoneThis was Josephine's first trip to New Orleans. She liked the parades, beads, and the hours of walking around.

Few things

Sent from my iPhoneFew things are cuter than a baby sleeping with her bottom up.

And these sweet jammy pants were one of her many layers she wore the day I met her. I can't help but picture the nannies bathing and dressing her for the big day. I wonder what they told her. I wonder what she understood.

First day of new school

Sent from my iPhoneA lot on things had to come together for this day. A Ruling for special education services, withdrawal, admission, meetings, registration, and of course shopping for new uniforms.

She had a good first day, but said that all through the day she was missing her old teachers and friends. Ouch, that hurts my heart!

From this move, I hope to see renewed confidence and progress with one on one instruction in her challenging areas. I want her to be brought back to a place she understands and given the time to build at her own pace for awhile. In the meantime I hope to get better control of her seizure activity and pray some of the difficulties subside with better seizure control.

I can't wait for the time that she feels comfortable and loves her new teachers and friends.

She is one brave (and innocent and trusting) little first grader! She believes me when I tell her she will love her new school. She believes me when I tell her that moms have to sometimes choose a different school based on different ways kids learn best. She believes me when I tell her all kids learn to read chapter books at different times. She believes me when I tell her the multiple pills she has to take every day are good for her. I just wish I believed as much as she does. I can only hope I got it right...

Future American idols

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5GsHVrasqg&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Sent from my iPhone

Sweet girls

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> We had our 6 month appointment with our neurologist today.

One of my topics to discuss with her is that I want to get a second opinion from the Cleveland Clinic for Madalyn.

> I am very pleased that she is not only okay with us getting a second opinion on Madalyn's seizure management and it's impact on her behavior, but she is contacting someone at Cleveland Clinic and sending our EEG recordings for me.
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> Below is a link that best describes the challenges of frontal lobe seizures and their management. It explains how sudden behavior changes can be seizures, and how hard it is to capture a lot of it on an EEG because of the size and location of the frontal lobe. It also describes the cognitive impairments people have when medicine is not controlling enough of the spiking (executive function, attention, hyperactivity, speed of processing). The article is the first I found that really describes the past year of our lives.
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> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2011.03057.x/full
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