A Day to Remember

April 6, 2014 will be a day we remember forever. That was the morning we woke to Ellie laying on the floor having a seizure. Pierce heard her making sounds, & went to investigate. He called to me and said, "I want to show you something." I thought, she must be doing something very cute for him to wake me at 6:00 in the morning! I quickly realized that was not the case, as I saw my baby lying on the floor, unresponsive, convulsing,and drooling.
We called 911, & while we waited, Pierce gave her a blessing. The ambulance arrived in what seemed like minutes; we were very blessed that they were close by. They rushed her to Children's Hospital with me in the ambulance and Pierce following behind. As the doctor and nurses worked on Ellie, I counted 12 in the room at one time. I also noticed that they were passing syringes to the trash by the handful. I don't know what all they gave her, I'm just grateful they did because she stopped seizing and calmed down. We know for sure that her seizure lasted 30 minutes, and was probably longer because she was seizing when we woke up. The doctors called it a prolonged, clonic-tonic seizure (aka-Grand Mal seizure). She slept until mid-afternoon.
The first thing Ellie said when she woke up was, "It's Ellie's lunch time." :-) She's not a girl that likes to miss meals! As the doctor had told us, her whole body hurt and she was unsteady on her feet for a few days.
The doctors did a CAT scan, blood work, urinalysis, & spinal tap trying to figure out what caused the seizure, & final said they couldn't find a cause. Her neurologist said we would put her on Keppra for the seizures and monitor her, but he wanted to do an MRI before we left just to rule out everything.
Ellie was put to sleep for the MRI, so I went to wait. Almost 3 hours later they called me back. The neurologist was there, & the first thing he asked me was, "Where is your husband?" I knew then that something was wrong. He showed me her scan, and the black, bean shaped tumor that wasn't suppose to be there. He also showed me a white haze around and behind the tumor. When we returned to Ellie's room, Pierce was waiting there and also had a chance to see the scan firsthand.
The next day we met with Dr. Harris, the only Pediatric Neurosurgeon in Knoxville. He spoke to us for over 2 hours and laid out all our options for treatment. Ending with his recommendation that we operate. After thinking for a couple days, we scheduled surgery for May 19th. A day that is both anticipated and dreaded.
We also met with a Neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt. He gave us the same recommendation, so we are going ahead with the surgery in Knoxville as planned.
We know this is a surgery that needs to happen, but are scared. All hope is that everything will go smoothly, and she'll be back to normal in 3 short months. The reality is that there are lots of unknowns, and this is major brain surgery on our 4 year old daughter. We are therefore, putting our trust in Heavenly Father. He will only give us what we can handle. I have already learned so much from this experience, and I am willing to learn whatever I need to...I just hope it's not too much ;-). I know more than ever that we are amazingly blessed with generous, thoughtful friends and family. I also know that Heavenly Father knows me and my family, & that Ellie is his daughter too.
Please pray for our family.