Facebook Fast & Updates

Weeks ago JL and I decided we were going to start a 45 day Facebook Fast/Break beginning September 1st, and for multiple reasons.  Mainly for times sake, giving us more intentional time together and with the boys, to find a better rhythm around the house as a family, Leroy was beginning a handful of appointments with dr's at Children's, and to give us more time in our days for intentional prayer and study.  But we didn't, as the day before we were going to start both JL and I posted status' pleading for your prayers for Owen, so our idea got pushed by the wayside and we used Facebook to gather our support team and prayers for our family and share updates.  You see early afternoon on August 31st, Owen had his first seizure.  We were at the Evergreen State Fair, and really we were on our way out as we had already spent a few hours there and we all were tired.  Shortly before leaving Owen woke up from a nap in the stroller and was kind of fussy, so I decided to wear him in the baby carrier.  We were a few yards from the exit and I noticed Owen was staring up at the sky, but I couldn't catch his glance, it's like he was looking straight through me.  The next thing I know his whole body tensed up for a brief moment and he then went limp and started seizing.  I have never experienced any sort of feelings like those that ran through me during those 5+ minutes.  We spent a few hours in the Emergency Room having Owen be monitored, they ran a few tests and everything came back normal.  We were released under the impression he had a Febrile Seizure and would need to follow up with our pediatrician at the beginning of the following week.

Just short of three hours after being released and 15 minutes before his next dose of Tylenol (to keep his fever down), Owen was seizing again.  I don't know what freaked me out most, his first seizure and not having any idea why my littlest guy was seizing, or the fact that from what we understood it's not common to have two Febrile Seizures in one day...  We went straight back in to the Emergency Room and Owen was under evaluation for a much longer period of time.  We then were told to follow up with the pediatrician the next day.  Which we did...  Our visit at the pediatrician's office was a little repetitive of information on Febrile Seizures, but very reassuring.  The pediatrician did mention that since Owen had two seizures within a 24 hour period, he would be categorized in a Complex Febrile Seizure group, which basically means, he will have more as fevers come and go.  Great thing is, children with Febrile Seizures grow out of them around age 6.  Even though these seizures are not known to have any lasting effects or cause any harm, they still are frightening.  We have been referred to a Neurologist with Children's Hospital and have an appointment set for early November but are on a wait list if anything opens up between now and then.

All of this was kind of the icing on the cake, as Leroy has been having hives and diarrhea daily for 10+ weeks.  He's been through what feels like a ton of dr's appointments with a bunch of blood testing, stool sampling and scratch testing already and the only things that have come up are an allergy to cats, and a high Eosinophil level...  Eosinophil's are a particular white blood cell, which with as high as they are coming up in Leroy means his little body is in constant inflammation.  He's been tested for a whole gamut of things from allergies (food and environmental) to a parasite, Lupus to Rheumatoid Arthritis...  And just about anything in between that has to do with this high white blood cell count.  We've been referred to specialists at Children's Hospital, a GI Dr, which we saw just last week for the first time and a Hematologist which we saw today.  Today we learned that Leroy's Eosinophil levels have lowered, which is FABULOUS news.  They are still to be considered elevated, but the fact that they've lowered means nothing serious is going on.  The Hematologist doesn't think we need to continue to see them regularly but to just follow up with the allergist and our pediatrician at this point.  Idiopathic Hives have come up in a bunch of different conversations with all of these dr's we've seen.  None have diagnosed Leroy with those, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes down to it.  Idiopathic Hives are just as they sound, idiocy, they are hives for no particular reason but they just come and go.

As for the Facebook "Break"...  Knowing how much of my time I let it suck up, I hope to be okay with "returning" only one day a week ("Facebook Fridays" suggested by my dear & wise friend Kelly) when all is said and done, or really to just break the habit of clicking refresh every few minutes throughout the day to see what else is new...  Maybe it's a stay at home mom thing, wanting connection with the outside world or adult interaction throughout the day, or maybe it's just a me thing.  Either way, I hope to be able to reorganize my priorities by putting my family, friends and my home before a social networking site.  I really do like my husband and babies more than Facebook, although, I'm sure they might feel different about it at times.

In unrelated news, we had a mini photo session with a local photographer Kristina Marie Photography and here are a few of my favorites :)