Thanksgiving and stuff

This is a little delayed I know... but things have been crazy over the last few days..

First things first. Thanksgiving this year is a no brainer. We are thankful for seizure freedom, A normal EEG, and a developing happy 3 year old little boy. God has done a wonderful miracle and words can't even begin to describe how thankful we are.

We have spent the last couple of days with family eating wonderful food and tons of it ( tis the season right) Which leads me to the next thing I am thankful for. We have the most amazing family and support group here. Allison and I are both so lucky to have our parents living so close to us. They have been God sends to us. They watch the Dawson during the day while we work so we don't have the added expense of childcare. They have done so much for us and we are truly thankful for the amazing family we have!!

Dawson continues to do very well. Being seizure free has opened up an entire new world for him. Changes are happening so quickly for him as it seems his little brain is in " catch up as quickly as I can" mode.. Some of the things we are seeing are very interesting. For example, he has all of a sudden become afraid of heights. Not too long ago you would find him perched in all sorts of places where he had climbed to ( most of them dangerous) and now he is so very much more aware that he is in danger.

He used to love being picked up and spun around the room, turned upside down, so on and so forth. Now it freaks him out if you try to turn him upside down. I look at these things as positive developmental goodies..

His newest thing.... He has become VERY shy around people. Even people he knows!! He goes into complete lock down mode. Grabs me or allison around the neck and just will not turn loose. I admit, his " shyness" seems to be on the very extreme end right now, but once again to me it means his brain is working, and he's trying to figure out some social things that maybe before he was completely unaware of.. Its just so cool to watch him learn.

Language skills continue to develop. He is still not anywhere close to where he should be for his age... but hes getting there. He is able to sing songs ( can't understand ALL the words but hes singing them) and his little sentences are getting longer. Every night him and I play the " night night " game. We say night night to everything we can think of.. He says night night moon,
night night stars, night night trees, night night nose, night night whatever he can think of... We are certainly headed in a very good direction!!! Its hard to get used to this new norm.. I still find myself wanting to scream to the whole world " THIS KID HAD INFANTILE SPASMS.... ONE OF THE RAREST MOST CATASTROPHIC FORMS OF EPILEPSY...... LOOK AT HIM!!!!! HES WINNING!!!"

But the truth is, most people just don't understand. Most people ( thank God) have not been exposed to this kind of stuff... For those of you who have, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For those of you who have... you KNOW what a miracle this is to be able to defeat Infantile Spasms.. So yeah, I'M going to brag and boast as much as I can.. Dawson can't say it yet so I will say it for him...

" I beat the seizure monster!! I fought through thousands of seizures, Ive endured surgery, being put to sleep multiple times, needles, having things super glued to my head more times than I can count. Ive endured multiple meds being dumped into my body, all of which made me feel completely out of sorts. Ive endured lengthy hospital stays and spinal taps. Ive endured feelings of rage and being out of control. Ive been afraid and I have been scared out of my mind. Ive endured the frustration of wanting to talk, but being help prisoner in my own brain by the seizure monster. Ive even endured watching my parents cry as I fought through seizures.
But, I have seen Jesus.. He's been with me the entire time and with his help, the seizure monster has been silenced. My mind is now free and I am happier than I have ever been. Thank you God!! "

Yeah, Id say were very thankful!!

Christmas tree farm

Wow, that was a short winter wasn't it??? We have been blessed with nice Spring like weather here this weekend..

Allison found a Christmas tree farm not too far from here and insisted that we go.. We love live Christmas trees and I thought it was a pretty good idea to go check it out. We have always been one to buy a live tree but have never been to a place where you could tag one and come and cut it later. We were pleasantly surprised!! This place was fantastic!! We were able to walk around and after much looking we found the perfect tree for us.. We tagged it, and we will go back in a week or two to cut it down and bring it home.. A new Wade family tradition to say the least.

We all went to Cracker Barrel this morning for breakfast.. Had a great breakfast but today hasn't been one of Dawson's best days.. He got all antsy before the pancakes could be delivered. I was using the " jump the peg" game they have there on the table as a therapy tool ( which was working great) he is really good at putting the pegs back in the holes again by the way!! ( Way to go Dawson!!) but after the third round of doing this he took the pegs and chunked them. ( right at the two nice ladies sitting right beside us) to which they replied.." its ok, we have children too"

Lady, if you only knew!!!!

We did make it through.. The rest of the day has been off and on good mood/bad mood.

But let me say this.. Dawson in a bad mood today with no seizures is HEAVEN compared to one of his BEST days with seizures so praise God he is the way he is now..

Today is day 57!! 57 days of glorious seizure freedom!! All glory and praises to God!!

Much love to all of you

Jeff

What do I say

This is a weird spot for me.... I want keep everybody abreast as to the happenings of Dawson but I find myself with not much to say.. I cant talk about all the seizures he is having and how heartbreaking it is.. because they are gone... I can't talk about his rage and aggression issues and how hard it is to watch him struggle through those terrible moments because none of that is happening.... Im really not sure what to do here..

I guess I could talk about giving his medicine every evening and how easy that has become but that would be pretty boring....

Or maybe I could talk about how WELL he and Madison get along and how well they play together now that he is in seizure free land.... but thats not very interesting either..

I did go stand in line today at the cable company to replace the cable box in the kids playroom so that I dont have to watch Nick JR on the HD TV 24/7 Yeah, thats not doing much for me either....

So I guess all thats left to talk about is how we still stand in amazement and awe every time we look at Dawson now.. Things around here are as normal as can be... He is catching up so quickly now.. He is full of smiles.. He is talking to us and making HUGE gains in the communication dept.. A funny thing that is completely new in seizure free land......

He is all of a sudden afraid of heights. ( which is a great thing right??)

Yep, things around here are pretty boring now.... and i wouldn't have it any other way..

Prayers and love continue for all of you..

Jeff

I guess two of my four kids are just weird... Madison ( and now we know Dawson) love fresh broccoli?? really??? We grow our own broccoli and Dawson got into the fridge the other night and out of all the possibilities, he pulls out a head of broccoli. The pics say the rest... Yum yum, nothing like broccoli and a dum dum sucker right???

Dawson continues to do AMAZINGLY well. Today is day 51 seizure free!! He continues to make leaps and bounds developmentally right now, but if you want to know the biggest difference I see in him..............

Well, it would be his smile. This kid is genuinely happy now. You can see it on his face and you can certainly see it in his eyes. He is just really really happy. After suffering through thousands of seizures, I guess I would be pretty happy too that im not having any. We are still just awestruck as to what God has done here!!!

On another note, Ashlyn and Katelin both have birthdays this week. Ashlyn turned 12 Friday and Katelin turns 9 on Tuesday. We had a pizza and cake party last night for them ( pics to come soon) and I just can't tell you how proud I am of these two as well.

When your 9 and 12, and both of you have Type I Diabetes, life is a little more difficult. It still pains me to see the process they have to go through each and every time they put food in their mouth. Its just not fair!! First they have to prick their fingers, then they have to count and figure each and every carb they are fixing to consume, then they have to figure out how much insulin they are going to need, then after eating they get to jab themselves with a needle and administer insulin so that they dont die. Such fun right???

Both of them are mature well beyond their years when it comes to managing Diabetes. They are very aware at all times at whats going on with their bodies. We still struggle with really high blood sugars, and on the opposite end, we struggle with low blood sugars as well. Its a constant battle they go through every minute of every day to keep their blood sugars in an acceptable range. Dont take your pancreas for granted people!!! Its an amazing organ!!!

So happy birthday to my two oldest angels. You two girls are so amazing and I am so proud of both of you!!

Our love goes out to all of you and we are thankful for your prayers.

Jeff

A sense of normality

We continue to enjoy this new journey we are on. A great sense of " normality " has fallen over the house. I say " normality" in that sense because what is normal really?? Everybody has their own sense of what is normal and what is not. I can only say that life without seizures just feels right. We are able to do things we haven't done before ( like actually going out to eat as a family) Interesting concept huh??

As a lot of you can attest to, going out in a public setting with a seizure ridden kid who has the temperament of an Alligator with a toothache is just a bad idea. As a matter of fact the last time we tried it was about two years ago and we swore we would never ever try that again. Its just not worth it.. But Sunday we took Dawson to Chuckie Cheese Pizza, and tonight Madison's school had a special fundraiser dinner at a Rosies. We kicked the idea around for a bit this evening and decided yeah, lets do it. He did just great and I think hes starting to enjoy being taken places and seeing new things.

His little brain is really accelerating right now. You can just see it working overtime to try and catch up. He Currently is around 1 year behind developmentally,but I suspect that gap will close pretty quickly. Just two months ago his communication was limited to one word at a time. Now his stringing words together nicely and is saying some short sentences. "There it is", "I want -----" , "I see sissy", and on and on I could go... Its just really really cool to watch this unfold this way.

Allison and I are still on cloud nine and to be honest, I think we will stay there for quite some time. Over The past three years we have cried a bucket full of tears. God has healed Dawson and now its time to celebrate!!! We are so glad you have been able to celebrate with us. We want to thank each and every one of you who left a comment on the last post. I wish I could explain with words what this support group means to us. We are forever bonded together because we share so many of the same experiences, and the same fears. Our family will remain as vigilant as ever in our praying for your family and children. Your comments touched us in ways that I can never express to you here.

Our praises go out to God and our love goes out to each and every one of you

Jeff

The Day we've been waiting for

Today we went to Huntsville to have an EEG for Dawson. His neuro ( and we) were anxious to see what his EEG looked like since his seizures have stopped. The hook up process was the smoothest its ever been. As a matter of fact, this is the first time we didnt have to hold him down and fight with him. The Tech at our Neuro's office is the best. We have had this process done so many times at so many different places and there is just no comparison to this lady. She actually got Dawson to help her throughout the process which kept him engaged. He was all hooked up in just a matter of a few minutes and he went right to sleep right on cue.

You just couldn't have asked for any better.

Without further delay, I am proud to announce that Dawson's EEG was completely NORMAL!!!

I can't even begin to describe all the feelings and emotions Allison and I have gone through over the past few hours. Just 42 days ago we were in a hospital in Memphis with a little boy who was having countless seizures daily. 42 short days ago we were there looking at an EEG that was just a mess. An EEG that showed total chaos and constant seizure activity in his brain. 42 days ago we were being told that he needed a portion of his brain removed to give him the best chance of a seizure free life.. and today...

We are celebrating not only seizure freedom, but a completely normal EEG

I knew from watching him this past month that his EEG was going to be improved. I may can not see inside his brain, but I see how fast he is catching up and how he is learning in leaps and bounds.. But i wasn't prepared for this.. So today we cried tears of joy on our way home from a Doctors visit instead of tears of sorrow.

You need proof that we serve a God who is alive and well and still preforms miracles????

Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you Dawson!! A seizure free little boy who in our minds is a warrior.. Who has battled and fought his way through thousands of seizures since he was two months old. Our hearts are litteraly soaring tonight.. Today is conformation of prayers answered.

We have no idea what tomorrow holds for us and we are taking this new journey one day at a time. This is just the best news we could have ever hoped for. Thank you for taking a minute to celebrate with us!! Your prayers have helped make this day possible.

Our love to all

Jeff and Allison

The streak continues

Today marks 40 days of seizure freedom for Dawson!!! I wish all of you could see with your own eyes what a difference its making in him.. He's putting words together very nicely and even singing songs on the radio!! What a blessing

Much love and many prayers go out to all our friends who are fighting the seizure monster!! We love you guys

Jeff