Here are my reason why I donate blood:
1. My children
2. My daughter, she needed IVIG to recover from Encephalitis
3. My father in law, who required blood transfusions before passing away
4. My family
5. J and E, children my daughter's age, who need monthly IVIG to combat their illness/conditions.
6. M and E who had a stroke and needed it.
7. Cancer patients that has required it.
8. You will never feel as good as you do after you donate blood.
9. M and J who need it after being hit by vehicles.
10. Someone needs blood every 3 seconds
11. 60% of the population will need blood at some time in their lives
12. Just one donation, to save up to three lives!
This is beside the fact that I am O negative, universal donor, and my blood type is the most sought after.
Good Night,
Take care,
MommaBear
Showing posts with label encephalitis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label encephalitis. Show all posts
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Hard times
Every parents of children with acquired brain injury have some aspect that are harder to deal with than others.
I can handle most of my daughter's day to day things. The emotional outburst can be testing some times especially when I've had a hard and/or testing day.
Yesterday, we had her three month follow up with her neurologist and then came the news that we had Botox to do once again. This is the third time. I was prepared for that what I wasn't prepared for was that she would be getting the injections in her calves as well as her hamstring.. The hamstring was a given because her posture is not quite there yet but the calves was my big surprise. Her walking as come a long way but they explained to me that the red marks on her feet wasn't because she was more active it was because the increased tone was creeping back and she wasn't walking heel toes like we do.. She's walking toe heel which create more resistance again the straps of her braces.. So my daughter has six injections and she screamed for all of them. I tried to comfort her the best I could but we needed to get this done.. I feel for her every time and that is my "don't you know she has brain injury" reminder. Every single time, I break down but this one I have no one to bail me out.. So I swallow my tears and paste this great big smile on my face and offer my daughter and helium balloon that gives her great pleasure..because I don't want her to feel that this is a bad thing... It's not but it's sure is hard for a parent to say that this isn't a big deal.. Because it is it's a reminder that she went through so much and has more to come.
The doctor says " You have an amazing little girl and I'm not just saying that". This neurologist was who treated her when we first arrive in March of 2009 and still didn't know what the road ahead would be like.. I wonder if she says this to all the parents. I mean everyone in their own way is amazing. I really don't know what to make of why this doctor needs to reiterate this at every visit. My daughter is a real miracle of life, one that when against all odd and keeps going. She's a happy child even though she's going through a lot and has been through a lot.
On the way home, the heaven cried hard for me.. So hard that I couldn't even see out my windshield. Maybe even God is sadden by what this small child has been through.
Take Care,
MommaBear
Friday, May 28, 2010
Grieving what could've been..
Today, I had a meeting with the school board for my daughter because of the severity of the brain injury left by encephalitis. We need to plead our case for her to have an educational assistance (EA).
Here's what I realize.. my daughter is universally loved which I already knew but was just reconfirmed. The biggest shock was how emotional I still was about this whole situation.. I wonder when you get use to this new life it's been almost 15 months and I still can tell her stories without tears but today was worst.. It knocked the breath right out of me... I couldn't breath.. I literally forgot for a few seconds when all these emotions and memories came rushing back at me.
The other big realization is that she will never have that normal childhood that we all had.. She won't climb monkey bars because she can't.. She'll need her walker in the school yard because if she gets bumped by another child.. She'll fall over.. To go to the park or outing, they will need her to use her wheelchair so she doesn't tired out during the day.. I'm so sad about this.. I've come to realize that I'm grieving what could have been.
I know that my daughter is adaptable, she more than willing to be different and work at what she needs to do to accomplished what she originally set out to do. She will have a terrific childhood with friends that will hopefully admire her and respect her. She will play in her own way and will learn to adapt and work at being who she wants to be.
Neither one is really related to one another is just sometimes you have to grieve the "normal" to be able to appreciate the "spectacular" or "different".. It's not a bad thing even though I have mix feeling about it.. I just needed to recognize these feelings so I can work with my daughter to help her achieve her goals.
Take care,
MommaBear
Here's what I realize.. my daughter is universally loved which I already knew but was just reconfirmed. The biggest shock was how emotional I still was about this whole situation.. I wonder when you get use to this new life it's been almost 15 months and I still can tell her stories without tears but today was worst.. It knocked the breath right out of me... I couldn't breath.. I literally forgot for a few seconds when all these emotions and memories came rushing back at me.
The other big realization is that she will never have that normal childhood that we all had.. She won't climb monkey bars because she can't.. She'll need her walker in the school yard because if she gets bumped by another child.. She'll fall over.. To go to the park or outing, they will need her to use her wheelchair so she doesn't tired out during the day.. I'm so sad about this.. I've come to realize that I'm grieving what could have been.
I know that my daughter is adaptable, she more than willing to be different and work at what she needs to do to accomplished what she originally set out to do. She will have a terrific childhood with friends that will hopefully admire her and respect her. She will play in her own way and will learn to adapt and work at being who she wants to be.
Neither one is really related to one another is just sometimes you have to grieve the "normal" to be able to appreciate the "spectacular" or "different".. It's not a bad thing even though I have mix feeling about it.. I just needed to recognize these feelings so I can work with my daughter to help her achieve her goals.
Take care,
MommaBear
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Last one I swear
Alright, this is the last one for tonight I have to go to bed.
My daughter is finally for the second time potty training after 14 months of recovery.. She can finally wear underwears again! She has however had two accidents but I am told that even a typical child will have accidents! I can't remember she was potty trained for 8 months prior to her illness in a blurr of postpartum.. I don't remember if that was the case.. So one big step.
Another big step.. she's had written her name without assistance! horray, she traced it but still no one was holding her hand.. She has the concept now she just need the practice! Ladies and maybe, gentleman, she's a lefty...
And finally, I've realized today that she can associate song to movie.. .. maybe I'm undereducated in this matter but I think that this is no small feat.. Of course, she got all the little mermaids songs but she also name pinocchio and Toy Story (she called it woody)...
Not to say, that I'm not impress with my son.. For an almost two, he follows directions very clearly. He seems to thrive on this.. He's got my photographic memories.. When I can't find something, I ask him... and more than often, he finds it.. He's potty training too.. He's getting pretty good at it.. He now tells me when he's gone in his diaper and gets all upset.. How can you just not love that.. He's not even two!
Wishful thinking, but it would be nice to be diaper free for the summer! or maybe even just a little part of it! Well actually, I'd take diaper free by Christmas!
Good Night to you all.
Take Care
MommaBear
My daughter is finally for the second time potty training after 14 months of recovery.. She can finally wear underwears again! She has however had two accidents but I am told that even a typical child will have accidents! I can't remember she was potty trained for 8 months prior to her illness in a blurr of postpartum.. I don't remember if that was the case.. So one big step.
Another big step.. she's had written her name without assistance! horray, she traced it but still no one was holding her hand.. She has the concept now she just need the practice! Ladies and maybe, gentleman, she's a lefty...
And finally, I've realized today that she can associate song to movie.. .. maybe I'm undereducated in this matter but I think that this is no small feat.. Of course, she got all the little mermaids songs but she also name pinocchio and Toy Story (she called it woody)...
Not to say, that I'm not impress with my son.. For an almost two, he follows directions very clearly. He seems to thrive on this.. He's got my photographic memories.. When I can't find something, I ask him... and more than often, he finds it.. He's potty training too.. He's getting pretty good at it.. He now tells me when he's gone in his diaper and gets all upset.. How can you just not love that.. He's not even two!
Wishful thinking, but it would be nice to be diaper free for the summer! or maybe even just a little part of it! Well actually, I'd take diaper free by Christmas!
Good Night to you all.
Take Care
MommaBear
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Encephalitis - What is this?
As promised here is the info on encephalitis, this information is available on http://www.encephalitis.info/ .. This site has a lot of information but is based out of the UK which means that there is not much support in Canada. Even thought the occurence of encephalitis is getting more and more prevalent.
Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain. There are many types of encephalitis, most of which are caused by viral infection. Encephalitis can be contracted from Influenza A, Influenza B, chickenpox, West Nile and many other viral infections. Encephalitis causes brain injury. Our daughter's inflammation was mainly in her brain stem and pons area. The brain stem controls all information sent from the brain to the rest of your body.
The symptoms for encephalitis are the following: confusion, drowsiness, headache, irritability, light sensitivity, loss of consciousness, memory loss, muscle weakness, poor judgment, seizures, stiff neck and back, sudden fever, sudden severe dementia, unstable walking and vomiting. If you compare this to any flu, a lot of the symptoms are similar which is why it makes this life-threatening illness so hard to diagnose. My daughter’s only early symptom was unstable walking, which at the time, we thought she was simply a bit dehydrated from the flu and lack of response which we attributed to also being tired and sick.
This illness is not new when I've research it which still happens now and again. You can see stories of these illness dating back to the early 1900's. There is no known cure for this illness and the doctor will never give you a prognosis. The best you will get out of them is that she is doing well.
What are the changes of reoccurence? this is not known either. I'm not sure why..
This leaves me with mix feeling about our medical system. If as a parent, you cannot turn to anyone get some answer it's makes coping even harder. Our family doctor is dismissive of our naturopath recommendations.. Which is better western medicine or eastern medicine? It's really hard to say both had great attributes but I can say that our naturopath is more forth coming with information then our family doctor is.
Having said this, you need to trust your instinct and keep questioning. Don't back down as a parent you need to be able to say that you've made the right decision because in the end, you have to live with the choice you've made for your family.
On this I say, take care for now.
MommaBear
Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain. There are many types of encephalitis, most of which are caused by viral infection. Encephalitis can be contracted from Influenza A, Influenza B, chickenpox, West Nile and many other viral infections. Encephalitis causes brain injury. Our daughter's inflammation was mainly in her brain stem and pons area. The brain stem controls all information sent from the brain to the rest of your body.
The symptoms for encephalitis are the following: confusion, drowsiness, headache, irritability, light sensitivity, loss of consciousness, memory loss, muscle weakness, poor judgment, seizures, stiff neck and back, sudden fever, sudden severe dementia, unstable walking and vomiting. If you compare this to any flu, a lot of the symptoms are similar which is why it makes this life-threatening illness so hard to diagnose. My daughter’s only early symptom was unstable walking, which at the time, we thought she was simply a bit dehydrated from the flu and lack of response which we attributed to also being tired and sick.
This illness is not new when I've research it which still happens now and again. You can see stories of these illness dating back to the early 1900's. There is no known cure for this illness and the doctor will never give you a prognosis. The best you will get out of them is that she is doing well.
What are the changes of reoccurence? this is not known either. I'm not sure why..
This leaves me with mix feeling about our medical system. If as a parent, you cannot turn to anyone get some answer it's makes coping even harder. Our family doctor is dismissive of our naturopath recommendations.. Which is better western medicine or eastern medicine? It's really hard to say both had great attributes but I can say that our naturopath is more forth coming with information then our family doctor is.
Having said this, you need to trust your instinct and keep questioning. Don't back down as a parent you need to be able to say that you've made the right decision because in the end, you have to live with the choice you've made for your family.
On this I say, take care for now.
MommaBear
Surprise this is life.
Hi Everyone,
I've started this blog to share my views as a mother, spouse, friend and full time employee in hope that I can bring inspiration or help to anyone looking for support in regards to the similar matters in their life. I am not a nurse or a doctor nor do I possess any medical degree or educations. I am a simple mom that has been dealt more than she could have every expected in her life and is trying to understand and hopefully help other parents find some kind of solutions or inspirations too.
My life took a turn for the unexpected last March. Both kids were sick at the time with influenza B. My son was 9 months old and my daughter was three. In the middle of the night, my daughter throw up and wet her bed and was unresponsive through our many attempts to communicate. We rush her to the hospital. Had I not been insistent they would have turn us away. They kept my daughter under observation and when we were going for chest x-ray, she started having seizures. There's no words that can explain what how helpless a mother feels when she sees her child going through seizures, no knowing what is causing it and not being able to help. She was then rushed to an acute care hospital . She was diagnosed the following day with acute necrotizing encephalitis. I will create another post to explain more about encephalitis. We were 6 weeks at this hospital and another 16 weeks at a rehabilitation center. My daughter had to relearn everything. Today she can walk with her AFO (braces) and needs a walker for longer distance. She speaks but in longer sentence the words will be blurred. She is no longer potty train and the battle to get her to this point is still going on. There a lot of reward system implement for this.. She is very emotional and gets frustrated easily.. This one, we are still working on. This one is a long learning curve. As a result of this illness, my daughter has acquired brain injury. This is a new fact of life for us and once that we are still getting use to. She is currently on a dairy free and gluten free diet in hopes that this will help her recovery. So far, she is more focus and less prone to emotional outburst. I can say this from the few slip ups that we have. I've seen the difference.
My son was saved from encephalitis even though he had the same flu and he was just an infant. However, he has been introduced to a whole of therapy that gives him great pleasure to interact within. He's dairy intolerant and we've had to adjust our diets to complement his diet and support his needs. Every day, I hope that by including him in our activities, that he will never feel left out or less important than his sister. After all, I'm sure that most mothers feel this way.
I can say that my life keeps me busy and that at any given point, I have my agenda close by to schedule another meeting to help our family get on track. I'm the one that most of my friends will turn to for advise since I will give them the most truthful and honest opinion that I have or might be able to point them in the right direction. As an individual, I've experience more than most people will have in a lifetime. Is this a good time? I'm not sure but time heals all wounds.
For this, I am call MommaBear because I will protect my family with such a fierceness to ensure that everyone is well taken care. Whether this means staying up late to research new means to cope, recover or adjust our life.
Take care until next time,
MommaBear
I've started this blog to share my views as a mother, spouse, friend and full time employee in hope that I can bring inspiration or help to anyone looking for support in regards to the similar matters in their life. I am not a nurse or a doctor nor do I possess any medical degree or educations. I am a simple mom that has been dealt more than she could have every expected in her life and is trying to understand and hopefully help other parents find some kind of solutions or inspirations too.
My life took a turn for the unexpected last March. Both kids were sick at the time with influenza B. My son was 9 months old and my daughter was three. In the middle of the night, my daughter throw up and wet her bed and was unresponsive through our many attempts to communicate. We rush her to the hospital. Had I not been insistent they would have turn us away. They kept my daughter under observation and when we were going for chest x-ray, she started having seizures. There's no words that can explain what how helpless a mother feels when she sees her child going through seizures, no knowing what is causing it and not being able to help. She was then rushed to an acute care hospital . She was diagnosed the following day with acute necrotizing encephalitis. I will create another post to explain more about encephalitis. We were 6 weeks at this hospital and another 16 weeks at a rehabilitation center. My daughter had to relearn everything. Today she can walk with her AFO (braces) and needs a walker for longer distance. She speaks but in longer sentence the words will be blurred. She is no longer potty train and the battle to get her to this point is still going on. There a lot of reward system implement for this.. She is very emotional and gets frustrated easily.. This one, we are still working on. This one is a long learning curve. As a result of this illness, my daughter has acquired brain injury. This is a new fact of life for us and once that we are still getting use to. She is currently on a dairy free and gluten free diet in hopes that this will help her recovery. So far, she is more focus and less prone to emotional outburst. I can say this from the few slip ups that we have. I've seen the difference.
My son was saved from encephalitis even though he had the same flu and he was just an infant. However, he has been introduced to a whole of therapy that gives him great pleasure to interact within. He's dairy intolerant and we've had to adjust our diets to complement his diet and support his needs. Every day, I hope that by including him in our activities, that he will never feel left out or less important than his sister. After all, I'm sure that most mothers feel this way.
I can say that my life keeps me busy and that at any given point, I have my agenda close by to schedule another meeting to help our family get on track. I'm the one that most of my friends will turn to for advise since I will give them the most truthful and honest opinion that I have or might be able to point them in the right direction. As an individual, I've experience more than most people will have in a lifetime. Is this a good time? I'm not sure but time heals all wounds.
For this, I am call MommaBear because I will protect my family with such a fierceness to ensure that everyone is well taken care. Whether this means staying up late to research new means to cope, recover or adjust our life.
Take care until next time,
MommaBear
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