This One's for Karen

I found this video on the internet, courtesy of one of my co-workers, and thought I would share it with you. This video is for all the mom's out there that have spent too many hours everyday trying to help their children grow and become productive members of society.

Craig MS Christmas Concert - Jason's First Concert

Jason is playing the clarinet in the Craig Middle School band. The band had their Christmas concert at Abilene High School last night. This was Jason's first public concert. They played two songs: Little Drummer Boy and Jingle Bells.

Jonathan's Christmas Program

Jonathan participated in the church Christmas program. He was a wiseman and brought his gift of gold to the Christ Child. I asked him after the show how he felt about it. He said he was nervous "because all those people were looking at me." We just told him we were proud of him and that he did his job really well. Thought we would share that small moment with you.

Two Updates on Jason

It was a good night last night: no seizures. After the seizures Jason had Monday night, you worry that the event will repeat itself. That was especially good for us because Karen was sleeping around town again last night. That is, she was doing a sleep study at Hendrick Hospital to see if they can do anything about her troubling sleep habits.

Secondly, we received wonderful news yesterday. Jason has been nominated to attend the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. this coming spring. He was nominated by the teacher at his school that selects students from Craig based on his "scholastic merit, maturity and strength of character." This opportunity is not without its challenges, however. It costs almost $2000 for Jason to attend. We will be looking at our finances in the next few days to see if we can afford it. It looks like we may have to wait on the new flooring for the house. And, there is always the issue of Jason's seizures. Truth be he doesn't have them very often but the stress of a trip like this could be just the thing to set them off. One of the weeks available to him is the same week that I will be in Philadelphia for a conference. It would be very helpful if I could fly with him and at least be in the same part of the country.

We ask for your prayers for Jason as he continues to deal with these two very big issues in his life.

Another Bad Seizure Night

Karen and I had gone to bed and were awoken 30 minutes later to the sound of a thud and a gargling noise. We knew right away that it was Jason having one of his seizures. We entered his bedroom and found him lying on the floor between his bed and his dresser, twitching and struggling for air. We picked him up, put him on his bed, held him, talked to him and just made sure he couldn't hurt himself and that he could breath. That about all you can do in these situtations. Typically, thre is no danger from the actual seizure so you just try to keep him safe. In most cases, injury occurs when the child tries to get up and move around. They tend to lose control of their arms and legs so if they are standing up they can fall and hurt themselves.

This bout of rolandic seizure was surprising to me because it occurred so soon after Jason went to sleep. It was longer lasting than what we had been seeing recently and he lost the ability to move his right arm for several minutes. I would say the seizure episode lasted about 10 minutes but it does seem longer when you're in the middle of it. The inability to move his limb lasted another 10. We moved Jason carefully to our bed so we can keep our eye on him tonight. He seems to be resting now but Karen and I will not go to sleep for the next few hours.