Sunday, March 11, 2012

In addition to my caringbridge post from tonight~

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/alexismeyer/journal

Tonight was a bad night. Once Alexis was in bed and my hubby was home from work, I had a chance to talk with him.
I broke down crying. I had a major moment of weakness. I broke down crying. I guess I had to get it all out.

I'm sad with all the health problems that Alexis faces on a daily basis. Today for example, she had a very busy day.

She had Art class today, and afterwards was invited over to a friends house for 3 hours. She needed some Tylenol before class, I didn't give her full strength, but she was still hurting after class, so she took one more.
We got home and Alexis wanted to play volleyball. So, we played for about an hour or 2. Then the neighbor boys came outside to play. They are 10 and 5 yrs old, did I mention boys. They are 100% boy, lots of energy!

Alexis likes to play with them. She was so happy to have 2 play dates today. But I could see she was exhausted.

She played until maybe 7pm. We played outside. And I might add it was only about 40 degrees, overcast, and quite windy outside.
I was wearing 2 warm coats and I was COLD. Alexis was wearing cotton pants, and a t-shirt and she was sweating. She even had to pull her hair up as she was so HOT.

They boys were having fun playing with her. And wanting to tackle and chase her. She was having fun...and I enjoyed seeing her playfulness.
Yet, the whole time, I was a bit nervous about her getting hurt.
I don't like to say anything and interrupt her play time unless there is a concern.

They came inside after playing for hours outside and played the Xbox with Kinect. The Kinect is more exercise.

Finally, we went to see Chris. On the way there we nearly missed hitting 3 deer running across the road. :( For some reason she started talking about children and animals in different country's, and was worried about the homeless. She was so concerned about the children and animals not having food or places to live or people to love them.

We came home about 8:30pm and Alexis said she was in so much pain. She had taken Tylenol several times throughout the day. So I gave her Motrin before bed.
She had used the heating pad for a couple hours to try to help her back and arms.

After reading the report from Seattle Children's. I felt devastated. I tried talking to Curt but he was busy and rarely understands any of the health stuff anyways.

Fortunately, my hubby is so sweet, kind and understanding. He can empathize with pain since he has been fighting cancer, surgery and Chemo.

I just wish I knew how to deal with this better.

The thing that bothers me is that she is only 9 yrs old. And to think of how her pain will be when she is my age & older.
And seeing her having so much pain right now.........I just hate it.

She is such an amazing little girl. Truly a blessing from God. I love her SO much.

Alexis is in pain all the time, and yet she is this strong soul & at such a young age, a little girl who looks at the bright side of everything, and is ALWAYS smiling. She has amazing strength. Her friends dad told me today that she is like a mini adult inside a little girls body and so mature for her age.

Her mind wants to Go Go Go, Play Play Play & have lots of fun! I want her to have all the fun she can!

But then I also get to see her hurting from this afterwards. And it breaks my heart. It just saddens me when she has to take pain medicine, and use heat pads, epsom salt baths or try anything for pain at the young age she is. :(

I couldn't sleep....and just wanted to get this out.

I keep praying for a Cure for Alexis.

Friday, March 2, 2012

HONORING ALEXIS' ART WORK AS IT IS SENT TO OLYMPIA!

Alexis' art work has been one of the chosen to be sent to Olympia for the Reflections contest.

I'm so proud of her. There were 4 people who entered from her classroom. And 2 were chosen.

She drew an OWL. And in many different colors. The title was, Diversity. And she wrote about all the different people in her life such as her step father is Filipino, her father is Caucasian, I'm Native American and she is half Native and half Caucasian.
She wrote about her friends, how many of them are Korean, Caucasian, or other races. And together they make great friends.
She also wrote about how some people are healthy, and some are not, but that won't prevent them from being friends.

She is such an amazing little girl. I love her with all my heart.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Life

Here it is, Friday night. We went out as a family for a little while. Did a little shopping, mostly window shopping. But, I did get Alexis some art supply's. She wanted some Art canvas', chalk and ink to do some rubbings. So of course I couldn't say no to that.

She is quite the little artist. I'm so excited to see her blossom even more. That's all she wants to do in life, she is always doing something artistic or crafty!

I'm hoping some day that we will be able to have a larger home, maybe a room that is for crafts.
It's difficult to pull everything out each time. If we had a room just for the crafting, we could just leave it and come back to it.

I'm sure that I'd get more done than I do now. We just don't have the space.

I'm very grateful to what we do have, not owe any money on it at all. But looking forward to the day when we have a bigger place.

I know that God is working in us. And we have to be patient. It's all on His time. Sometimes that is hard, but then I remember all He went thru. And have to realize that He has a plan for us.

I keep thinking of all Alexis has been thru in the last year to year and a half. 2nd grade was pretty good. Minus the girl drama. That was terrible. I'm sure there will be more of that in the future....but hopefully not. I can certainly do without that! Alexis did make a fantastic friend. Unfortunately, she moved, but the experience was well worth it. She has those amazing memories.
Bully's are just insecure people. They must just feel so little, so they feel the need to hurt others feelings.

Third grade has been better for the most part. Minus the "boy" drama. Yes, that's right. Boys are already interested. I had to step in after I was told by someone else that Alexis was being touched inappropriately!

Alexis was diagnosed with some new things just last week. :(
So now she has: Chiari Malformation, Syringomyelia, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Hemihypertrophy, & Hyperplasia.

I can tell you that we go through enough with just her health. I envy those whose kids just get a cold, flu, virus or something little like that. When my kid gets sick, it can attack & hard.
Alexis got strep throat last year, it tested negative for over a month. Then finally when it did test positive, it blew into Scarlet fever. She was sick from May 13th to first week of July!

It's hard to see your child Chronically ill all the time. You can feel so alone. Like others don't understand...or just those few that are going through something similar.
I have some friends on FB whose children have similar situations. I can easily talk and listen to them.
They aren't judgmental, and don't tell me that I'm over reacting or geez well she "looks" fine! I hate that one the most.

You cannot see Alexis' health problems. Well you can see it in the Xray's, MRI's, etc. Or if you KNOW what your looking for and understand the diseases.

If you DON'T understand them, than of course you can't see it. Gosh, I just want to say, HELLO??? Where's your darn chiari, syringomyelia, EDS, hemihypertrophy degree???? Do you know what they are? Do you know how badly they affect her body? NO! And that's usually people who are perfectly healthy! Or have little health problems>>>> I'd never go around telling someone, OH well you LOOK Just fine, what's your problem!!! How RUDE!

Just sayin!

So the other night, 2 guys about college age were bullying my husband. YEP, well trying.
Anyway, we were at the store tonight. And Alexis and I were walking in front of Chris.
I hear this guy say, Hello, How are you????
I was thinking it was a guy who worked at Walmart but it wasn't .
Chris was behind us, didn't say anything
I almost said, Fine thanks....but
then the guy blurts out REMEMBER ME?????
Chris says Yes!
And I stopped to see who he was cause I didn't know what was going on...
they guy looked at me and realized I was with Chris. And walked away...........
Chris says, that was one of the guys who was making fun of him the other night at Ross.
Once the bully saw that Chris wasn't alone, he walked away.....GOSH I wish I knew that he was the bully before all that.
JERK I hate people who are so mean. I pity them.
I wanted to say so much! Alexis said, Momma I'm scared of him! I told her it was ok.
Frickin bully's at all ages. We don't have time for that type of drama at all!!!

Friday, January 20, 2012

W.H.A.L.E. (we have a little emergency) Car seat stickers for Children with special needs!

http://www.whaleprogram.org/


W.H.A.L.E.™ Program Logo Child Safety Seat Occupant Identification Program BannerSlideshow image

W.H.A.L.E.™ Program Home Page

Find a W.H.A.L.E.™ Program near you

W.H.A.L.E.™ Program Kits

Agencies that use the W.H.A.L.E.™ Program

About and History of the W.H.A.L.E.™ Program

Help support the W.H.A.L.E.™ Program
W.H.A.L.E.™ Logo and Carseat.

Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 killer of kids. Why? In many cases, children are either not properly buckled into their safety seats or parents don’t realize that a booster seat is vital to ensuring children fit safely in their vehicle’s seat belt. Don’t take a chance. Children may be riding in a vehicle with parents, grandparents, daycare providers or others. In an accident, if the adult in the vehicle is seriously injured or unable to talk, those responding to the emergency have no easy way of identifying the child. The W.H.A.L.E.™ Program is intended to give parents (or other caregivers) the the voice and tools to help emergency rescue efforts go more smoothly.

W.H.A.L.E.™ stands for “We Have A Little Emergency.” This car seat safety program was developed by Connie Day, a caregiver from Virginia. In the event of an automobile accident that incapacitates the adult driver and passengers, rescue personnel will have a difficult time identifying children riding in car safety seats. In some situations, these adults may not be related to the child passenger; therefore, conventional means of obtaining information will be useless. In these cases, W.H.A.L.E.™ can make a significant difference.

Most laws require that all youngsters under 4 years of age or up to 40 pounds must be seated and harnessed in an approved child safety seat when riding in a car. Now that same child safety seat can provide vital information about its young occupant in the unfortunate event that the driver of the car is incapacitated in a car accident. W.H.A.L.E.™ stickers are placed on both rear side windows of the car and on both sides of the child safety seat so that emergency personnel will know immediately that there is vital information pertaining to the child on the back of the car seat. The W.H.A.L.E.™ car sticker contains the child's name, medical history, names and telephone numbers of two guardians and up to three other emergency names and telephone numbers.

The program consists of three parts:

1. An Information Label is attached to the back of the car seat, which provides important information about the child, such as name, date of birth, medical history and who to contact in case of emergency. The label is placed on the back of the car seat where it is not visible from outside the vehicle. This ensures the privacy of this personal information.

2. Two W.H.A.L.E™ Car Seat Stickers are attached to the sides of the seat.

3. Two W.H.A.L.E™ Vehicle Stickers are attached to the rear/side windows of the vehicle. Each of these stickers depicts the W.H.A.L.E™ logo and will alert emergency personnel that the occupants participate in the program.


GET YOUR KITS or FIND A PROGRAM NEAR YOU

CHIARI SYMPTOMS CHECK LIST AND LINK

http://chiarione.org/symptoms.html



Symptoms List

The list below attempts to put symptoms in the order of importance but, it is difficult to say with certainty which symptoms are more common than others. There have been no formal or controlled studies of the percentages of patients that suffer from each symptom. In addition, symptoms may differ from patient to patient depending on where pressure is exerted (i.e. whether tonsillar descent is causing pressure on the brainstem or not, whether syrinx exists, etc).

In general, people without herniation may not suffer symptoms associated with brainstem compression but, rather, with lack of CSF flow and raised ICP. These symptoms tend to mirror those of PTC and include some of the ones listed below.

Headache (esp. if daily or at lower back of head)
Painful tension in neck
Fatigue
Migraines
Dizziness
Visual disturbances / loss of vision / spots in vision / double vision / seeing spots or "halos" / nystagmus
Tingling / numbness in the extremities
General imbalance / clumsiness
Memory loss
Restricted movement
Intolerance to bright light / difficulty adjusting to light change
Vertigo from position change or sudden standing
Difficulty walking on uneven ground / feeling ground under feet
Poor / degraded motor skills
Difficulty driving
Difficulty negotiating steps
Pressure / pain in the neck
Pressure / pain behind the eyes (soreness in the eyeballs)
Back pain
Neck spasms
Insomnia
Ringing in ears (like the tone heard in a hearing test)
Swaying
Pain when changing position
Tingling / crawling feeling on scalp
Intolerance to loud / confusing sounds
Decreased sensation to touch in extremities
Decreased sensitivity to temperature
Pain & tension along ear / eye / jawline
Difficulty swallowing / lump in throat / sore throat / swollen lymph nodes
Drooling
Spontaneous vertigo
Hand tremors
Poor blood circulation / cold hands & feet
Sinus / mucous problems
Sleep apnea
Decreased muscle tone
Pressure in ears / ears feel stopped up
Nausea
Difficulty reading / focusing on text
Depth perception problems
Burning sensation in extremities / shoulder blades
Menstrual problems / severe cramping during period
Fluid-like sound in ears (like water running)
Loss of sexual interest / lack of sensation in pelvic area
Pulling sensation while sitting / standing
Intense itchiness w/profuse sweating
Slurred speech
Gag reflex problems / lack of gag reflex
Pressure / tightness in chest
Loss of bladder control
Frequent urination
Dehydration / excessive thirst
Electric like burning sensations
Unequal pupil size
Loss of taste
Popping / cracking sounds in neck or upper back when stretching
Dizziness
Loss of smell / problems with sense of smell
Dry skin and lips
Sudden / abrupt changes in blood pressure due to awkward position of head
Hiccups associated with drinking carbonated beverages
Skin problems


Other: migraines, oscillopsia, lump in throat, colour blindness, albinism, visual floaters, astymosism, thinning hair, hear heartbeat in ears, throat closes when lying flat, vomit in sleep, swollen face, low body temperature, low blood pressure, legs feel heavy, "strangling" feeling, "floating" sensation, thickening of finger joints.