Another day, another seizure?

Well it has been a long road the past few months with a huge learning curve. Justin continues to be monitored for his nocturnal seizures. Next steps a video EEG and a blood test to see if he has the gene for nocuturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. Sometimes I think it's a dream, something I just made up. An overreaction. But each night I am reminded that what looks like short bouts of nocturnal arousals has repetitive patterns and predictablilty. So far nothing has come of it in the daytime that we know, but the video eeg will confirm. Look for an update in the Spring.

Catch up!

Well Life has been less than dull in the Sherriff household these last few months. I will admit much of the news has blown me out of the water and it has taken me some time to come down to that peaceful place. Where do I start?

Well let's start with a Justin update! Justin has finally been diagnosed with Epilepsy. Man was this frightening. I thank God I had been given the skills to identify this type of seizure because it was a little less obvious if you know what I mean. Justin suffers from frontal lobe seizures that only occur at night. They started happening nightly in April and after several weeks of appointments, video taping and converting footage, and an EEG, Justin was diagnosed with epilepsy - frontal lobe nocturnal seizures. I am sure you can imagine the anguish I felt seeing my child go through this over and over and not have it formally identified as this type of seizure can be confused with sleep terrors. The EEG confirmed abnormal brain patterns in the frontal love which trigger these simple partial seizures which alter his mind to send signals to his body parts to do repetitive movements, some slight trembling, wandering and some times loosing bladder control. Thank goodness the medicine he is now on daily controls things. We still have to be on guard. Now were back to sorting out his learning problems and some genetic testing and an MRI are scheduled for October. We continue to think happy thoughts as he seems so much like a typical 7 year old - minus his academic performance which puts him 1-2 years behind in core subjects. It's up to me to continue advocating for testing and to ensure the IEP is in order.

Our summer included some fun and lots of sports! Football, soccer, hockey camp and swimming lessons kept our schedules hopping. A couple trips to the cottage gave us some reprieve form the normal grind - but not as often as I would have liked. A new pool, birthday parties and tons of sleepovers (as usual). My boys also took a mini vacation with their grandparents to the golf course resort for a 2 night stay. I think it's great they have developed an interest many of our family members have. Something they can do together. Now if only I could learn to golf! No worries - it's on my to do list. Having 2 of my boys gone from the house gave me plenty of time to spend with my youngest Justin as we ventured to African Lion Safari.

Sadness hit us last week at the death of my father-in-law, bringing us down from our summer fun for a few days. He was a great man and it was a bit nuts around here as I contributed to the memorial service with a scrapbook, a DVD presentation of Family Reflections and some memorial cards. Bill will be greatly missed.

So I am sure I forgot some things and back to school is upon us! Let the craziness begin... and I hope to get back to blogging. Check in now and again for more!