Morning Moanings

It's early on a Saturday morning. Nearly 4:30 AM. I am working in the offie and as always I have the intercom on. I here Alex russling in his bed. It is getting louder and louder. Now he is snorting. Bummer! First day of the CHrsitmas holiday and he is having a seizure. I am up out of my chair, through on the hallway light, trying to decide whether to wake Marycke or allow her to sleep. Into Alex's room I barge, throw on the lights, and whoa! He is sitting up in bed, no seizing but laughing. I guess he had passed some gas and was laughing - not seizing. So off go the lights. He gets a little back rub from Dad. And I am back in the office. Thankful that there was no seizure and we all may have an enjoyable Christmas. We hope you all have a great time as well.

Seizure Monday

Well we made it through the weekend but now 5 AM Monday morning and Alex is seizing. He had crawled into bed around 3:30 AM. I tried to get him to go potty forst but he refused.

So of course now he is seizing and wetting the bed. Looks like another weekly trip to the Wash Cycle to wash the kingsize mattress pad.

Marycke gave him 20 mg DIASTAT. No more seizure till, 3:00 PM. Hmm, that is unusal. So he gets another 10 mg.

We got him dress and hopedd he would be ready for school. He had slept through the night and remainded home all day Tuesday.

Another Monday Moaning

Well we made it through the weekend - no seizures. BUt 4 AM this morning he had another seziure. Marycke gave him 20 mg DIASTAT. No school.

We did have a fun weekend watching trains and planes. It was a nice December, South Texas Day, you know, mid 70s. So we went to the TTM and rode the train. Alex also likes the scale model trains inside.

But I guess weekly seizures remain the 'name of the game.'

Making Coffee

Not only does Alex like to drink coffee, he enjoys making it as well. Here is the video.

Nice week

Alex is doing well. He has been sleeping in his own bed. Eating well and generally been in a good mood. He did have nose bleeds Wednesday and Thursday but they were easily stopped.

Nose Bleed

The weather must be getting cooler and dryer. Alex has had several nose bleeds. Here is his note from school.

Neal & Marycke,
Hi, Alex has been working great at McDonalds and MacArthur Park Lutheran Church. Today he had a nosebleed and got some blood on his clothes. I wanted to tell you so you would not worry. Alex has been asking for a coke at the MacArthur Park work site every time he is there so we are working on using vending machines for our break.

Enjoy this great day,
Linda Higgins

Eye Fluttering

Alex continues with weekly seizures. Usually Saturday night or Sunday AM. Quite often while watching trains or doing a puzzle, he will stop, flutter his eyes, and then resume what he is doing. We are checking with the Doctor to see if these are peti mal seizures. You may be able to see it here on this video.

Horseback

Finally, after nearly a month we got to take Alex for hippo therapy. He really enjoys the horses. It is cold but other than beign distracted by the trains he is doing well.

Seizure Saturday

Well for a change Alex had seizures on Saturday. He had a mild one around 2 AM and then a stronger tonic clonic at 7:20 AM. We held off giving him DIASTAT and he slept till noon.

Now he has been up enjoyimg a toasty fire while doing a puzzle. Neal and Alex have watched a little football, made and drank coffee and just picked up Sonic for Alex. He loves those foot long cheese dogs and tator tots.

Happy Thanksgiving

Alex enjoyed a great turkey day. He got to have both his sisters come home and then dinner with Grandpa.

Training

Yeah it is the weekend again. Love hopping in the van and chasing trains with Neal.
Sometime by the harley store as well.

Another Seizure Weekend

Another weekend. More seizures. This time not as bad as last.
He had 1 Sat PM, 1 Sun AM and another Sunday afternoon.
Fortunately no need for DIASTAT this weekend.

Strange this time was the Saturday seizure which was AT 9 o’clock while he was awake and doing a puzzle. These non sleeping sudden onset seizures always throw us off.

Anyway we expected to have him to school by 10:30 but he crawled back into bed and slept till 1:30. No school today.

Bowling

Alex seems well. He certainly had fun at bowling. Cool, silver medal! He came home off the bus and just talked and talked all afternoon and night. He is totally into wanting to be with his loved ones.

Doctor Visit

Alex had a good visit at the doctor. We still have some work to do on his hamstrings, but he enjoyed dinner with his Grandpa and then we watched airplanes for awhile.

ALex really enjoys doind puzzles in Neal's new 'techno DOCTOR' office. He can open and close the garage door while looking for the bus to come.

He seems ready for school and we hope all goes well.

Airshow and another Seizure Sunday

Sad to say it was another Seizure Sunday. Alex will not make it to school today.

We had a fun Friday night watching the Night Air Show out at Randolph. Alex really liked the old airplanes.

Then we spent Saturday working on computers and watching a few trains. Come Saturday night (11 PM) he started with his seizures. Back to back, very hard ones. So Marycke gave him Diastat. That lasted till 8:55 AM when he had them again. So more Diastat. Bigger dose. Fortunately he had no more and slept all of Sunday.

Once again it seems after adjusting the VNS he has increased seizures. July and August were great with only 2 per month., But now after the adjustment he is back to weekly. And they seem more violent.

He is still sleeping this AM and we hope he can get to school tomorrow.

Feeling good!

Alex had a great day. He got a haircut and then we went to Grandy’s for a little sausage and ‘plane watching’.

He slept well and is ready for school.

Halloween

Alex had a fun time last night opening the door and handing out candy.
Hope you all had a frightful night as well.

He had a good night and ate well. He was ready for the bus. Forgot his wrist band but there is one in his backpack.

Seizure Sunday

Well no Alex at school this morning.

We had a pretty good weekend but this AM he had seizures and we had to give him DIASTAT.

Friday and Saturday were fine. We did lots of train and plane watching, even got to go by the Harley store again. Then Sunday 8 AM he had a single seizure. He got up okay around 10 AM and seemed okay,. We spend the day doing yard work and then some late afternoon train watching.


Come time for bed we ask he to go potty. And there, straining on the pot, he goes into a seizure. We expected more but nothing till 6 AM.
Hmmm.

Seizure Day

No Alex at school again today. Yesterday he had seizures at 5 and 8 AM. Then later more between 3 and 4 PM. We were able to keep him home and give him DIASTAT but that means he will not be in any shape to day to enjoy bowling. Maybe tomorrow.

Yeah for Linda and the kids for a Silver Medal!!! The NEISD Special Olympians in Team USA Basketball have won silver medals at the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games. The students will return from Shanghai on October 13, 2007 with their medals in hand. The students are Jennie Cardenas, Arturo Esquivel, Naser Harhara, Wayne Hoffman, Stephen Koehn, Ashley Muth, Jim Scarl, Joe Spade, Zack Thompson and Katy Walding. Coaches Donny Horadam and Robert and Linda Higgins (Alex's teacher) also accompanied the students to the games.
The 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games were in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, and was from October 2 through October 11, 2007. The event marked the first time the World Summer Games was in Asia and the second time outside the United States.

Bowling

Alex had a good afternoon and a good night. He never got to sleep and around 11:00 PM pushed me out of bed and we switched places. But then he was fine the rest of the night.

This morning he seems a little crabby. More protests than we would have preferred.
But he had a good breakfast, French Toast and bacon, and was ready for the bus.

He did have a number of BIG sneezes this morning.
Have fun bowling!