HANNAH

Hello everyone, we just got to the hospital this morning. Hannah is doing well and looking alot better than yesterday. The doctors have scheduled the tests for Epilepsy and some are this morning - while some have to be two weeks from now. I have no idea why, but she will be on meds to try to prevent another seizure from happening.  She will have to be watched carefully so that in the event of another happening, she will not get hurt.

I wanted to share some pictures with all of you that I took this morning, but it is kinda hard from this computer, here at the hospital, I will do it once we get back home though.

For those of you who have asked I thought that I would type this up......

Hannah was born June 15th, 1997. She was born at 32 weeks, thus being premature. My pregnancy was fine with her, I never had any problems or was bothered by anything, so going into labor with her was a big suprise at that time. The delivery was normal and everything went just fine. I had fed her once after having her and then they took her to the nursery. At about 3am the next morning they had brought her to me and she refused to eat and was really - REALLLY fussy. All she wanted to do was to cry and cry and cry. So I called in the nurse and told her that I thought something was wrong. She took Hannah back to the nursery and from that time till mid afternoon I did not see her, I did not hear anything. I slept alot of the time - I was really tired. Sometime in the afternoon then the nurses and doctors came in and told me that they were rushing Hannah to a bigger hospital near Chicago. (where we lived at the time)

They told me Hannah had contracted the Group B Strep virus and that it had turned into Meningitis. Suddenly, everything went so fast and the world was crazy. A few hours later we were at the other hospital in thier NICU and had seen Hannah have numerous seizures (don't even remember the count) she'd had a moment of turning blue that lasted about 30 seconds, among other things. Now this is what I remember, and I call tell you in all my years .... IT WAS BY FAR .... THE ABSOLUTE WORST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN !!!

Knowing that someone so small was in such pain - it ravaged my heart, I couldn't stand it and all I could do was cry all the time uncontrolably.  Within the next 24 hours, they gave Hannah several blood transfusions and two spinal taps. She had IV's in her head. They told us upon going home that evening to not wait by the phone, but they were giving Hannah a 5 % chance to live till morning. Now, how I made it through that night - I will honestly NEVER know. They would not let us stay - so that just made it worse for me.

Hannah obvioulsy did make it through that night and the others, she was a fighter. She fought so hard !!! She ended up staying in the NICU about 30 days and then was released on monitors to come home with us. WOW - I was so nervous about her being home. They told us that they would never know the full extent of damage done to her brain due to all the seizures and what had happened and the only way to tell was just to give it years and we'd find out.

So, not until 2005 when we had seen our doctor here about the growth of her left foot did we start to find out. She had always developed otherwise pretty normal and on time. She had to have MRI's done and seen the neurologist at the MAYO Clinic in Rochester, MN. They determined that her left side growth was stunted/ had trauma because a bit larger than golf ball sized of her brain on the right side, was no longer there. At birth - they determined she had - had a STROKE !!!! I couldn't believe it !!! I was SOOOOOO shocked !!! ... WHAT - ARE YOU SERIOUS ... I think that was all I could say !

So the part of her brain that told her left foot to grow was gone, her left hand had miraculously compensated elsewhere and no problems were/are had with it that we can tell. So they have done two surgerys in 2006 to correct the matter and try to help and aid in the growth of her left foot. (There are pictures of that in her picture folder)

Hannah also has many memory problems - she has times she can not remember to put on her shoes or her coat, brush her teeth, shower - use soap, etc. You must constantly be very repetitive with her about almost everything and she gets very frustrated about it alot of the times. Alot of people assume that just because she looks normal on the outside that she is normal - however she is not and cannot do things other kids do. She does not act the way of a normal 10 year old and so since she acts much younger people just asume she is stupid or extremely immature about things. I cannot tell you how many dirty looks I have recieved because some of the things she does and don't realize. I have also recieved comments about her weight, which if you haven't noticed she is a bit over on. This is also something she has no control over and has a very hard time getting others to understand that. Out of all my kids she eats the less, however it effects her like you'd not believe. She is pretty active, as much as my other children are - so the doctors just say that it is a part of her. However the comments people say do get me quite angry. It is not like I am over feeding her or she is in front of the TV all day long. If you know me, You know that TV isn't watched too much at my house and only good snacks are allowed. Grrrr - why must others assume ?

Anyway Until Friday with the seizure at school, we had no idea that this was an issue. She has had no problems other than what we knew of already. So see, we find out new things all the time. At school they have called her condition a "Progressive Cognitive Disorder" - sometimes it seems worse - yet other times it seems better. It is true. One time she will remember how to get in the shower and turn on the water - while perhaps the next day even she will have forgotten. It is VERY hard to understand and it really can be quite frustrating. It bothers me when I feel angst over it because I can only imagine how from her point of veiw she must feel.

So there is the story of Hannah.... I'm sorry I wrote so long, but hope it gives those you you who asked a better insight to the questions that you asked.

Well, we are waiting for the doctor to come in here - hopefully to go ahead and tell us something or to discharge her as they said she could go home this afternoon. My kids are having a blast here and don't want to go... they have a Wii and tons of movies - a extremely large playroom with tons of toys.....lol ! Ahhh, wish I had this room at home, I would love to give the kids a huge playroom !!!

I will blog again as soon as I get the chance ... I've been trying to catch up to all you blogging fools while here too, sorry if I missed any !! have a great weekend everyone !!!!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH AGAIN FOR BEING SO CONCERNED ! It means alot to me !

TAMMIE :o)

p.s. I wanted to add that this is kinda scary to me, boy have I got some reading to do !