Our Thanksgiving

It has been a busy few weeks and taken me a while to get back on here to let you all know about our Thanksgiving. My mom and dad were out here for a few weeks to spend it with us and we were blessed in more ways than one to have them here at this time. Our Thanksgiving day started out normal by doing breakfast and then the girls and I decorated our Christmas tree before lunch since Greg and I were suppose to go away the next day for a short getaway. We have a small tree this year since we are limited on space, but it is beautiful because we did it together. After snacking around at lunch time, I began to throw all the meal together and Greg started frying the turkey. The girls all enjoyed helping do something. As part of her home economics this year, Kalani made the homemade macaroni and the fruit salad. Hannah helped make the broccoli casserole, grossing out the whole time as she despises broccoli. Lauren and Shelby helped do the apples for the apple pie. Hannah and Lauren also helped peel the eggs for deviled eggs. Along with all that we had a small ham, the deep fried cajun turkey, andouille cornbread stuffing, regular stuffing, both gravies, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pies, and of course my mom's homemade rolls.

We all went around the table giving thanks to many things and I had just done mine. With all the disease and sickness that is in this world I had just said how thankful I was that everyone in my family was healthy at the moment, not knowing where the next few hours would lead us.

About an hour before it was all done, Hannah came out and said the right side of her body was numb and was experiencing some silliness when trying to talk or hold something. We did not think much then because she was laughing about it and had been laying down so we thought maybe she laid a way that part of her body fell asleep. After sitting down to a table so full of food that we could hardly pass it, Hannah began to complain of a headache. I started out with one ibuprofen and she laid down for a while. She got up and said it was worse so she took the second ibuprofen and laid around.

At a little after six, as we were all fixing to play a game together, Hannah began to cry and say her head was getting even worse. Greg and I were beginning to be very concerned so we headed out to the ER at the army hospital. On the way there Hannah began having difficulty answering simple questions and things she was saying didn't make sense. Amazingly when we got there, they were not busy for a holiday night. Hannah was examined by the doctor and was unable to communicate things to him as well and was unable to perform some motor tests he asked due to the numbing on her right side. It was very hard watching her be altered and not able to do these things. They did a CT scan that was inconclusive because the doctor said there was some kind of a malformation that kids her age can develop on the brain that the scan wouldn't show, so they were transferring us to a civilian pediatric ICU. Thank goodness my mom and dad were here to be with the others while Greg and I spent the next 2 days in an ICU with Hannah.

I rode up front in the ambulance with Hannah and Greg followed. Hannah was put through several tests the next day and all the really bad things were ruled out, which we are very thankful for. Her EEG did show signs of slowing from whatever happened the day before on the left side of her brain, effecting the right side of her body. It took well over 24 hours for the headache to totally go away. The doctor came in late Friday night to let us know all the results and that he feels she is at the age where she is starting to have severe migraines and this one produced stroke like symptoms from how it effected her brain. He did numerous blood tests the next day before discharging her as well to make sure it isn't some blood coagulation disorders that could have caused this episode, but we are still waiting on the results from those.

We came home on Saturday and needless to say, Greg and I did not get to go away, but being with her was more important. The neurologist put her on an aspirin a day until those blood results come in and since that we have had to deal with several nose bleeds. She is doing okay now, but we will have to see how often these may begin to occur and how aggressively we may need to treat them to keep them from getting as far along as this one did. We were also told because of the type of migraine she had that she is 4 times more likely in her life to have stroke. Not something a parent likes hearing, but something we need to be aware of. Please continue to pray for her and the doctors that will be treating her in the months to follow. Stress is a big key in how these may come on, and those that know us, know that she has been under a lot, so we are working on ways to relieve stress or ways to minimize it for her. So needless to say our Thanksgiving was good, but not uneventful!

I am still very thankful that those in my family are healthy right now and that it wasn't something much worse with Hannah. We are thankful to my parents for all they did and for being here at a time we really needed them! Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with those you love all around!!