The last week of school is upon us...yeeee haw!!! This is great because I don't have to wake my darling child up too TOO early on many days. I work from home three days a week and so she'll only have to get up against her inner clock on two of those days. Sort of like a reverse normal week during the rest of the year.
I don't know if it's her or the meds, the epilepsy, the moon, the stars, the shoe size of a gorilla or what, but she talks very often in her sleep. Not the mumbling kind where you can't figure it out either. If she ever gets married someday, she better hope she says nothing incriminating because her hubby will hear it ALL. I can hear it from a room away as if she's awake, reading a script.
She had seen on I-Carly (that show that makes adults look like bumbling doofuses that can't flip a light switch without the aid of a child for direction) an episode where this kid Neville says "Aw, Chiz!" She has taken to this phrase as if it's an obligation. To me, it's the kid equivalent of "Aw, SHIT!" So last night, as if needing to read an entire football stadium, I hear "I need some Chiz!" from her room. Ok, we don't need that kind of statement in public, Ever. It doesn't sound like there is any profitable outcome from that. So I went in, checked on her and asked if she wanted to come sleep with me. Somehow, those words always drill right into her psyche. She was up and in here as if she were moving before I'd asked.
But it makes things easier for me in the morning. I don't have to listen for anything strange from the other room. I put one hand on her so that I can feel if anything is starting. This morning she was having a mild start to a seizure. But because I could feel it, I told her to get up right away. For whatever reason, this helps her. It pulls her out of it. My guess is that the brain now has competitive stimulation ... now she's standing, now she's walking, now she's navigating through the hallway. Many times I will have to lead her through the house, back and forth. Today was ok enough for her to do this on her own. And thankfully, most of the time she listens and just gets up when I tell her to.
Today she told me that she can stop a seizure sometimes and that it's like staring contest. You just try not to move.
Just the other day it was announced that 68% of patients with Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy (JME) become seizure free! We don't know for sure that this is what my Humanling has but her neurologist seems to think so. But because she was seizure shy during the last EEG, I'm not sure we can verify it.
For now, she has a pretty normal existence. Except in some cases like where sleepovers are concerned. She asks constantly about sleeping over someone's house. And it breaks my heart because I can't put that on another parent or child. As much as I want her to have a normal childhood, sleepovers are sort of out of the question. She's tried her negotiation skills with me, since she is a Capricorn, after all. "If I don't have a seizure for two months, can I sleep over so and so's house?"
"Three months"
"Ok, Four months!" and there she goes upping the ante on herself, reminding me of the Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck standoffs.
An understanding teacher is key though throughout the school year. I feel that hers has not been very supportive. She's a first year Special Ed teacher and says really inappropriate things that make me want to stuff jalapenos in her mouth. Last week she mentioned to Humanling, "How did you even make it to the 7th grade?"
I've had talks with the school psychologist previously and we couldn't move her to any other classroom. Next year I hope for much better for her. As any parent would.
Time to for me to wind down now in the event that someone shouts out for more Chizz.
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