Lexie's Life

What is A.D.E.M.? To our family and I am sure to many others, the most terrifying and confusing thing. It all started with a virus that Haylee had gotten. She was vomitting and had diarreah, standard virus stuff, but it didn’t seem to go away. Day after day she was vomitting and not doing so well. It was going on for weeks, we were starting to get worried. I took her to her pediatrician and he said the same stuff, “It is just a virus and will go away in a few days. Just give her Pedialyte.” We continued to give her Pedialyte and she continued to throw up. I started noticing that she was getting really clumsy. She would usually run around the house, but she was really wobbly, not walking for long distances, and tripping a lot and not picking herself up. Aaron came into town on Friday, but we spent the whole day taking me to my doctor to get 4 bags of fluids in me because I had gotten sick and lost 4 pounds in 12 hours. Anyways, we didn’t get home until around 9:30PM and Haylee was asleep by then. She woke up the next morning, very tired and clumsy. I wasn’t too worried about her because she ate her oatmeal just fine. About an hour later, she was laying in my arms and vomitted. I was really worried about her now. I told Aaron that we had to take her to Urgent Care because she was probably dehydrated by now, it had been going on for 3 weeks! We took her to Urgent Care, they told us to take her to the Emergency Room because they would want to start an IV. We took her over there and that is what they wanted to do. They needed to run some blood tests on her, but the only problem was, she was so dehydrated, they couldn’t get a vein. They tried overall 4 times in her left arm, once in her right hand, 2 times in her left arm, 2 times in her right hand and once in her foot. They were trying to get the IV in her right hand and she is screaming. I am in there with her trying to calm her down while Aaron is in the hallway because he hates needles. I laid my head on the bed to say a Hail Mary that they would be able to get the IV in this time, and when I looked up, she had stopped crying. Her little eyes went completely blank, her legs went up in the fetal position and she started to shake and make a gurgle noise. I thought she was throwing up and going into shock. Well, I was wrong, she was having a Grand Mal Seizure right in front of me. I freaked out and started screaming and turned her on her side because I thought she was choking. They told me she was having a seizure and Aaron came in really confused and upset and I told him what was happening. So while she is still seizing, they are still trying to get the IV in. The seizure lasted about 3 minutes total. She was really out of it for about 2 or 3 hours. She had no fever, they did a cat scan and that was normal, and they did a spinal tap which came back normal. They tranferred us to the main hospital where we were for 5 days. They did an EEG and an MRI, which finally gave us the diagnosis. ADEM. In lamen terms, she had a virus and instead of her body attacking the virus, it attacked the mylen that is on her brain. Without that mylen to protect the nerve endings on her brain, her brain was sending signals to her tummy to vomit and that also caused all of the clumsiness. She had a therapy of 5 days on a steroid to get the swelling on her brain to go down. We got out of the hospital on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving and she is doing much better. She is walking, eating and not throwing up!!! We are so thankful to have our baby back!~

Wow! I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have put anything on here! So much has happened in our lives, big things! I am now 35 weeks pregnant, only 5 or so weeks left!! Our little boy is doing well and growing a lot! My belly is huge! For Halloween, I painted my belly as a basketball and instead of it saying Wilson, it said Asher, his name! People kept touching it to see if it was real or if it was a fake basketball, but they quickly realized that it was my belly! Haylee was a little butterfly. It was actually the same outfit that I bought her last year for Halloween, but we didn’t go out because she was not even a week old and I was recovering from a C-Section. It is a 0-3 month size costume, but still fit her. She looked adorable. I put together the wagon that she got for her birthday, and she fell asleep in it. It was so cute! She got a good amount of candy, even though she is tiny still and can’t even eat any of it! It is a good thing she has a pregnant mommy that will eat it for her!!! I would hate to see any of it go bad! She had her first birthday party on the 22nd of October, even though her real birthday is on the 23rd, but the 22nd was a Sunday. We had a ton of people show up. We did a BBQ and Erica came over early to help me make her a butterfly cake. We actually wound up making 2 of the butterfly cakes and one big one for everyone else to eat. She had a lot of very special people at her party, both sides of Grandparents, her aunts and uncles, some of our friends, neighbors, and even her Great Grandmother came. It was a very special day for her. She got tons of toys, which she loves!! She is having a blast playing with all of them. She also got some adorable clothes. We had a really great time. Dad came down from FREEZING Wyoming and that was very special. I was so excited that he was able to make it safely. It was really great getting to spend some time with him and Chris. I never thought I would see the day when my dad would be holding my little girl!! It was such an amazing thing to see. He got to feel the baby kick too!

Well, we are moving………AGAIN!!! It is crazy! I am excited because we are going back to Tucson. I love the weather there and the people there are really nice. We have friends that we have kept in touch with, so we will have people there that will want to hang out with us. We didn’t have that kind of luck in Las Cruces. While we are in the process of our move, Haylee and I are up in Rio Rancho staying with Aaron’s parents. We will be here until I have the baby, and for a few weeks or so after so I have time to recover. Aaron is staying in Las Cruces to finish up some of his work stuff that he has to have done before he can move to Tucson. He is going to move everything into the house and then come every other weekend to Rio Rancho to visit us. It is really hard not having him here with us all the time, but it makes it that much sweeter when we see him on the weekends. We are going to talk to my doctor to see if we can schedule a day for induction or just do a C-Section, because that will be scheduled as well so that way Aaron will for sure be at the birth of the baby. If I go into labor, he will have 4 hours to travel from Las Cruces if that is where he is when I go into labor, or 7 hours if he is in Tucson. That is why we want to either induce or have the repeat C-section. I would hate for him to miss the birth of his little boy.

Um, what else has happened, OH! I went to see the Phantom of the Opera last Sunday with Erica and my mom. It was so cool!! I remember listening to the soundtrack over and over again when I was little, but never knew what it was about!! I just knew that I loved the music. We went for my moms birthday, even though it was in July, but the gift that Erica got her never showed up, so this was the perfect gift. We went to dinner at the Cracker Barrel, then went to the show. It was an amazing show!!! I have never seen a show in person like that. I was really impressed, so thanks Erica!! Anyways, I am really tired and I can’t really think anymore. I am going to hit the sack! Have a God filled week!!