Embracing a Healthy Family: medical alerts

At long last, the girls were able to experience snow! The two year old never has seen it in person and the last time my six year old had, it was four year's ago when we lived in Indiana. We moved from Indiana and spent one year in Hawaii post my husband's deployment to Iraq and then to Georgia. This summer, will mark our third and hopeful, last year. While hubby deploys to Kuwait in May, I get the task of selling the house and moving to our next location. Anyway, we received 6-7 inches of snow and it was glorious except for our six year coming down with a severe ear ache and congestion. The only thing that provided her any delight was the snow so we had to let her go out both yesterday and today, completely bundled up and not for long. She's not speaking due to the pain and since she already has epilepsy and migraines, I didn't want to prolong it in case it did end up being H1N1 for both gir's sake.

In June 2008, within two week's of one another, both girls were diagnosed with Benign Rolandic Epilepsy and some unknown pulmonary possible immune system issue. Both girls were healthy and had no issues until post vaccinations. Coincidental? Perhaps but I have no idea so I move forward focusing on care and treatment. Both instances landed my girls in ambulances from the local military hospital to the local children's hospital because they quite frankly, are unable to treat chronic conditions in children. There is a long story on the trials and tribulations I've suffered at the military hospital but I'm not focusing on the past. Today, I'm focusing on what happened today.

We arrived, no one else was there so that was a nice surprise as the wait can be long as anyone who visits an ER knows. We are sent back for vitals and the intake person, possibly a nurse, doesn't know what Benign Rolandic Epilepsy is so I explained and provided the medication along with her newly diagnosed medication for pediatric migraines. I was alright with that as it wasn't the doctor so it would be fine. Upon being shown to our exam room, the doctor came in. He was a very nice, polite and professional doctor who I liked. He asked what the medications were and I said "Benign Rolandic Epilepsy." He said he never heard of it. I suppose it might be an uncommon condition but from all that I read, quite a few children are diganosed with BRE and with luck, they outgrow it when they reach puberity.

My summation to today was since the medical facility had no idea what BRE was, found no problem with my daughter's pain and congestion other than "perhaps a virus," I'm not comforted and am still sitting by her side with worry. It's hard trying to keep the two separated as they spend so much time together. I'm assuming it's not H1N1 since they weren't worried over the ear pain, fever and congestion.

This is a picture of her during her last EEG to monitor the electrical waves in her brain to help determine type of seizures she is having. In spite of a scary situation, we had a great two nights together playing, coloring and just having some "mommy and daughter" time.

The other purpose of the post is to draw attention to a fantastic Etsy and Ebay seller who creates and sells buttons highlighting certain medical conditions. Based on my interactions with her, she created epilepsy awareness buttons and buttons to warn others that the person has epilepsy.

Her shop is Creative Clam and I'm overlooking her New Orleans Saints' Who Dat button (I''m a Colts Believe diehard fan). Here are two of the new epilepsy buttons:

She has all my children's medical conditions covered: Epilepsy, Asthma and Allergies. There are so many and they are inexpensive which is why I included the post. I like the idea of the buttons if my six year old is on a school field trip or participating in an event away from me as it draws immediate attention to her condition.

There are many other non-medical products too and being a military wife, I'm excited to see some future military buttons coming out!

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