Dr. Olson's office called this afternoon and wanted Kaitlyn to come in & have her blood level checked today. Our visit went well & the level results should get to Dr. Olson tomorrow. Stay tuned!Tuesday, November 13, 2007
1st Blood level
Dr. Olson's office called this afternoon and wanted Kaitlyn to come in & have her blood level checked today. Our visit went well & the level results should get to Dr. Olson tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Kaitlyn's drowsiness has gone away, but she's continuing to have seizures. We noticed them start on Thursday and are still occurring today. She's having at least 3-4 per day. They are less frequent than before and more subtle, but Dr. Olson advised us to call his office when we see changes.
We gave our diary of seizures to the nurse. She was very thorough, asking us tons of questions and told us what to keep track of (medicine changes, seizure length, seizure description, etc). Every time we see a change, good or bad, we'll call the office & report these changes. She said there's no need to call every day, but every week to 2 weeks would be sufficient. She'll give her notes to Dr. Olson and she suspects he'll want her blood level results before he makes any recommendations.
Kaitlyn's first blood level check is scheduled for Thursday, but it will probably be tomorrow.
Kaitlyn is still very happy & playful. Her teachers said they've noticed she's playing with more toys and likes to babble even more than before!
We'll be sure to post Dr. Olson's recommendation once we hear.
We gave our diary of seizures to the nurse. She was very thorough, asking us tons of questions and told us what to keep track of (medicine changes, seizure length, seizure description, etc). Every time we see a change, good or bad, we'll call the office & report these changes. She said there's no need to call every day, but every week to 2 weeks would be sufficient. She'll give her notes to Dr. Olson and she suspects he'll want her blood level results before he makes any recommendations.
Kaitlyn's first blood level check is scheduled for Thursday, but it will probably be tomorrow.
Kaitlyn is still very happy & playful. Her teachers said they've noticed she's playing with more toys and likes to babble even more than before!
We'll be sure to post Dr. Olson's recommendation once we hear.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Our meeting with Dr. Olson
Today was our first meeting with Dr. Olson at Emory Children's Center. They started by taking several stats - weight (21.5 lbs!), height, head circumference, etc. Dr. Olson began by asking us about the episodes we saw in Kaitlyn. We described them the best we could. He said they were not typical, but did say that they were NOT occurring 8 times per minute. He confirmed her only episodes were the ones we saw - approx. 15-20 per day.
When we were initially told the frequency, we were concerned we wouldn't know when there was improvement with medication. We were very happy to find out the seizures we saw were the only ones she was having. That being said, we are thrilled that the medication is helping all of the seizures!
Dr. Olson said Kaitlyn's MRI results were normal. There were no lesions and no surgery was required. He did say that there is abnormal development in Kaitlyn's brain causing the seizures and the slow rate of her development. He was very clear that the seizures were not causing the slow development. His first priority is to stop the seizures. He was very pleased that she's responding to the phenobarbital. As far as her development goes - we'll have to wait and see.
Kaitlyn will have her blood level checked next week to ensure the proper level of medication. We will meet with Dr. Olson every 3-4 months to check Kaitlyn's progress.
We are very excited to know the seizures are less frequent and will continue to work with lil' KatieCakes to achieve all of her milestones! Thank you again for all of your thoughts & prayers!
xoxoxo
When we were initially told the frequency, we were concerned we wouldn't know when there was improvement with medication. We were very happy to find out the seizures we saw were the only ones she was having. That being said, we are thrilled that the medication is helping all of the seizures!
Dr. Olson said Kaitlyn's MRI results were normal. There were no lesions and no surgery was required. He did say that there is abnormal development in Kaitlyn's brain causing the seizures and the slow rate of her development. He was very clear that the seizures were not causing the slow development. His first priority is to stop the seizures. He was very pleased that she's responding to the phenobarbital. As far as her development goes - we'll have to wait and see.
Kaitlyn will have her blood level checked next week to ensure the proper level of medication. We will meet with Dr. Olson every 3-4 months to check Kaitlyn's progress.
We are very excited to know the seizures are less frequent and will continue to work with lil' KatieCakes to achieve all of her milestones! Thank you again for all of your thoughts & prayers!
xoxoxo
Monday, November 5, 2007
Doing great
This weekend was wonderful! Kaitlyn was very playful & didn't want to sit still at all. Josh & I didn't notice any episodes either! It makes us more relaxed as we mentally prepare for our meeting with the neurologist tomorrow afternoon.
We'll post another message after our meeting!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Full dose
Kaitlyn started her normal dosage amount of phenobarbital today. She will receive one dose in the morning and one at night. She doesn't like the taste - I think I'm going to have to find an alternative to the syringe.
In other news - Kaitlyn has started to hold her own bottle! Hooray!
Today was very normal. We didn't notice any increase her drowsiness or sleeping. Her disposition continued to be very happy.
We have continued to notice episodes, but we were told not to expect many changes right away. However, the episodes are less obvious than before. This is very reassuring! We are very anxious to meet with Dr. Olson on Tuesday.In other news - Kaitlyn has started to hold her own bottle! Hooray!
