Thursday, August 26, 2010

5th Grader.....

Yesterday was the first day of school...  WOW.... where did summer go???  Hannah was ready to go back.  Even though she is still having multiple seizures a day and wetting herself with most of them, she was so excited to start the year.  We had a big meeting with ALL her teachers and WOW, I mean all of them....  2 regular ed teachers, 3 intervention teachers, band teacher, PE teacher, art teacher, psychologist, counselor, Hannah's aide, and the principal... WHEW!!!  We discussed Hannah's schedule (which changed 3 times in the week before school started) and all the changes with Hannah over the summer.  I felt SOOO much better after this meeting and think it's going to be a great year.  I think we have everything in place for when she wets at school (she only had one seizure her first day)... It's sad to think that with every year she is older, she needs more help from her aide.  God love Miss Vanessa!!  She is awesome.  She has been with Hannah since 1st grade.  It really gave me comfort; Hannah going back to school with everyone so new, knowing Vanessa was there....

OH....  I almost forgot.... she got a new "do" the night before.... It is SOOO cute and she is thrilled with it.  She wanted bangs and layers.  I love it!!!!

Onto the pics.....



All ready to go!!!!!

























Blitzen is anxiously waiting for the bus!




I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this pic!!!!!  so sweet.....






Yes indeedy.... that would be a silly band on Blitzen's paw!!!  I don't think it lasted too long.... :)
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1 comment:

Vanessa Nepper said...

Oh yes, Blitzen's silly band was on for a good part of the morning. Thanks for the kind words Marcia, Hannah and Blitzen have been a big part of my life and I look forward to this new school year with them.

Vanessa

August 27, 2010 at 7:45 PM

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Beautiful Hannah...

How this journey started....

Hannah was born prematurely at 34 weeks gestation. She was a relatively healthy preemie; initially having difficulty maintaining body temperature and needing to grow. She weighed 4 pounds 9 ounces at birth. When she was four months old she began to drool, non stop. We were told the first year she was "teething." At 18 months old, we really started searching for reasons of why her shirt was always soaking wet. We saw various specialists who always sent us to another specialist, saying "everything looks okay." She spent years in oral motor/feeding therapy to help her not to drool. It wasn't until she was four years old and in preschool that we started to get some answers. Her preschool teacher commented one day that she wasn't reponding when her name was called. I took this information to her pediatrician who then orderd an EEG, "just to rule it out." Much to our shock and amazement, the results showed, she was having seizures. That is the day our journey REALLY began. Once she began taking seizure medication the drooling almost stopped completely. (She will still drool to this day when she is having seizure activity). Since then, it has been a roller coaster; countless medications and medication changes. She has never really reponded well to any medication.

About two years after she was diagnosed with epilepsy, the doctors noticed that her blood pressure was running high. After many tests, she was diagnosed with hypertension. We still are not sure why, but her cardiologist feels her blood vessels are thicker than normal.

About this same time, we also began looking into why Hannah was such a horrible sleeper. She would thrash, talk, move every which way, during her sleep. The sleep studies revealed that she has alveolar hypoventilation sydrome, which means she has too much carbon dioxide in her system when she sleeps. To help this, she wears a BI-PAP at night. This has been monumental in giving her more effective and quality of sleep.

Every day is a challenge for Hannah and our family as a whole. Blitzen has been an absolutely wonderful addition. She calms herself sometimes just by petting and loving on him. He has been trained in behavior disruptions and will sometimes be able to stop a meltdown from getting out of control.
It has been extra hard on the whole family since daddy is deployed to Iraq. He has been gone since January 09 and will gone until Jan 2010. We get to talk with him by phone and on the web cam; which is nice, but not the same!! Blitzen has helped to make his absence go just a little smoother....