Home Sweet Home!

Jaree was released from the hospital today. Thank God! She was diagnosed with epilepsy and sent home on Dilantin. She will only be on this medication for a month and then the doctor will switch her to Topamax. This will be a major adjustment for me. Monitoring what she eats, where she goes, she can never swim, bathe, or go outside without me. This is going to be so hard, because she is sooooooooo very independent. The doctor did, want her to lead a normal life. They don't even want me to report to the school that she has epilepsy. The neurologist did make me feel better. He said that his goal as her doctor, is to make sure she leads a normal life. Preferably seizure free. She only has to be on seizure meds for 1 year. That is of course without seizure. I am so tired. Jaree woke up last night, asking for her daddy at about 3am, he left around midnight, to get some comfortable rest to go to work. We both were staying there everyday since Friday. She started panicing and her respirations got really low. She screamed and cried for almost an hour. I was going to call him, but thought it would be best not to wake him. Finally, she got back to sleep at 10 minutes to 4am. It took me awhile to get back to sleep. I got right back up at 7:45am. She was sleeping so sound. I went to the lobby got coffee, checked twopeas, (thank God they had the internet), and watched the news. I got back to room, she was still sleeping soundly. I ate breakfast and she woke up around 9:30am, she went to the restroom. The childlife specialist came in and brought her all kinds of puzzles, 2 art kits, and coloring books to take home. This child has really been spoiled from the day she went into the hospital. The nurses in Icu bought her a beautiful blanket and cute teddy bear. Then the Pediatric floor nurses bought her a teddy bear pillow and coloring books, then the anestielogist bought her a teddy bear, her father bought her the cutest doggie teddy bear, that she will not go anywhere without, she named him Spot...... when she left it was like she was a celebrity, everyone signed her coloring sheet...all the doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, housekeeping, you name it. She got enough hugs to last her a lifetime.

When she got home, her daddy surprised her with a huge bag of gifts his co-workers bought for her. She got 7 of the cutest plush teddy bears, candies, coloring books, cards, money, piggy bank, and the cutest blanket and pillow sets! Guess what? That was just the day shift! The night shift also have a bag of stuff for her. She said " My birthday is not until April 18th"! I laughed because she was overwhelmed with all her goodies. She is so happy to be home. I am too. I am just trying not to over do it. I am going to try not to go into CRAZY OVERPROTECTIVE PSYCHO MOM MODE. Its going to be hard, but I am going to try hard.

She is so strong, she survived an horrible ordeal, and if you look at her she looks like a mini-diva.

Dana