Thursday, July 28, 2011

Not Much News

My blog is so rarely updated. Ethan is doing very well, so there isn't much to share. It seems his seizures have fallen into a routine, and every 3 weeks almost to the day he will seize for a day or two, and the rest of the time hes pretty normal! We had a kidney stone scare a couple weeks ago, but so far so good. We have had some exciting changes though, we moved! At our old house we had this huge flight of stairs right in the middle of the house that there was virtually no way to block off. We have found the most perfect rancher house for us. All one level living. The best part of all is it has a HUGE finished basement complete with 2 extra bedrooms and a bathroom. This means the kids have space for all their toys, and I finally have a sewing room all to myself! I have been cranking out all sorts of stuff for my shop, and it has been bringing in lots of money to pay off those medical bills! In case any of you don't know about what I do, I make upcycled wool cloth diaper covers for my etsy shop here: etsy.com/shop/tarynstuff. It was a hobby that turned into a full time job, but I love it and the extra money is nice:)
Our New House!
This is less than half the basement. Room to run and SAFE for Ethan!
We have been battling some serious behavior problems in Ethan ever since he started getting his mind back. According to our neurologist in children with Doose the same area that is causing the seizure disorder also effect behavior. It might not be his fault, but I'm at the end of my rope every day with him! We have tried everything we can think of, and I have read multiple books on dealing with these problems and I can't find anything to help. Our neurologist and pediatrician both recommended he see a therapist so we went to our very first appointment today. Right off the bat he said it was very obvious he has ADD (yeah, no kidding) but we DO NOT want him on any more drugs so we are working on ways of doing things differently. He made some really good suggestions for things to work on this week, so we're going to give them a try and hope for the best! People know so little about epilepsy in general, and even less about the very rare types so no one knows what's going on in his brain, and what may or may not help. We just have to stay patient, and try everything:)

The only other real news we have is at the beginning of September we will be flying out to my grandpa's 80th birthday party! It's going to be so nice to get back there and see everyone, and I can't wait to see my cousin and meet her kids. Her youngest is only 2 months older than Taylor so it's going to be so fun to see them together! It should be very interesting traveling with an 18 month old, crazy Ethan at 4, and for the very first time Mr. Jet. Yep, he's coming on the plane with us. He is so well behaved and trained at this point, and the calming presence he brings to Ethan will be much needed. Stress triggers seizure, and any calming presence will be appreciated! Plus I want my family to meet him when they were such a big part of us getting him. I really can't say enough about him. He is the smartest dog I have ever met. You would never guess he is still a puppy. He follows Ethan everywhere, and gets very nervous if he can't see him. When I load the kids up in the car he follows us outside. I tell him to go lay down and he plops down in the grass and stares at Ethan. Once they're loaded I tell him to go inside or hop in the car and we're off. It's amazing how well he listens, and just look at how handsome he is:) He does need a trim though!
Ethan's Mr. Jet. First thing he says in the morning is, "Where's my Jet dog?"