I hope so cuz maybe I can borrow some. The special needs classes started back to school on the 15th. Katie was so excited as was Mommy! I knew it was going to be challenging. It had only been a few weeks since she’d been out of the hospital. Not much had changed. We were told it would take time for the liver to heal. She was still unsteady and still not eating much but we had to give it a try. She loves to be at school so why not continue that healing with her friends and a schedule.

As January turned to February, her seizures seemed to decrease but episodes of vomiting increased and she was eating and drinking very little. We had a follow-up with neurology about a week and a half ago. He wanted us to schedule an appointment with neurosurgery to get new brain scans. He put in orders for us to schedule an eeg to rule out the vomiting and new seizure activity. He also brought up possible reflux and prescribed prevacid.

The week of the 15th when school started back she threw up four nights in a row. Wednesday night she threw up for at least an hour. I became very concerned. I sent a message through to the nurse asking her to reach out to the neurologist and expressed my concern that she may need to be admitted. I became very concerned that she may be having pressure issues causing the vomiting. Of course with not eating much and then continuing to throw up what little she did eat along with her seizure meds, I knew we were heading to a bad place.

The nurse messaged me at midnight and was already on it. I let Katie sleep in and started getting things in order. Her doctor called me mid morning and had already reached out to his team for them to order testing and get a room ready. He wanted us to head up to Duke and check in through the ER department.

Katie was admitted Thursday evening and we came home yesterday. She had CT scans, bloodwork, an upper GI, and EEG monitoring the entire time of her stay. I think about 50 doctors and interns and residents came in our room while there. I know it’s a teaching hospital but if I had to retell medical history way more than necessary. There was a lot of holding her down getting the upper GI and EEG leads on. As her brother would say “she is freakishly strong”. Thankfully she forgives easily and doesn’t carry a grudge. We captured one of her typical seizures on the EEG. Of course, she didn’t throw up once the entire time there.

There are still test results that need to be returned and viewed but we captured a lot of good data. So where do we land today? Her liver enzymes have changed very little and could possibly take 3-6 months to heal. This means her liver is not metabolizing her seizure meds as it should she is having more side effects. Her gi tract is also inflamed they determined the vomiting is her sleep in reflux. She didn’t throw up in the hospital most likely because the hospital bed is inclined. geez! All this drama over reflux. Well, I’m still happy we got all this testing done. This takes a lot of worries off my plate.

It is so good to be back home. I am going to wake her up and get her ready for school and start a new week. Life continues. I ordered an orthopedic medical wedge for her bed and a new baby monitor.

In other news, Nathan got his Eagle Project done this weekend! YAY! he still have to have final sign-offs and a board of review meeting but the project is done.