Abigail Gaya

My Story

Born: I was born on April 29th 2006 at 26 weeks and 4 days
Weight: I weighed only 1 pound, 10 oz. I was so small, daddy could fit his wedding ring around my wrist.
Eyes: My daddy says I have the biggest, most beautiful hazel eyes he has ever seen.
Hair: Mommy loves my light brown curly hair. She still can't figure out where the curls came from, but she loves them.
Triplets: Yep! I'm one of three girls. My sisters Emma Jayne and Madelyne Rose are waiting for me up in heaven. Emma met Jesus one day after we were born and Madelyne met him two days after.
Surgeries: I've had 16 surgeries so far. I'm pretty much a pro at them.
Other Stuff: I suffered a Grade III brain hemorrhage on the left side of my brain and a Grade IV on the right at birth. The docs said I would spend my life in a "vegetative state." But I am sooooo not! That's why mommy and daddy call me a miracle. They told me that all the docs are very surprised at how well I am doing now. I can walk, talk, count to 30 on my own, say my ABC's, and I know all the words to the songs my mommy and daddy sing to me.
My Accessories: I have a G Tube for feeding. I like to snack a lot, but I don't eat enough to make me a "chunky monkey" so mommy and daddy have to feed me through this tube that goes into my tummy.
I also have a VP shunt in my head because I have Hydrocephalus. Because of my brain hemorrhage, the fluid that is produced in my head doesn't have a way to drain out like the fluid in your head does, so this shunt drains the fluid down into my daddomen....or abdomen or whatever it's called. I just call it my belly.

And finally... I wear a brace on my left foot because I have some Cerebral Palsy. The brace is great. I can walk better with it and mommy ordered me a pink one, which is my favorite color.

My daddy wanted to me to remind you that this blog has been going since I was born so you can go back and read up on me from the beginning.

Thanks!

Some of my Favorites

Favorite Song: I love any song that is fast and up beat so I can twirl around and dance!
Favorite Hobbies: I love to take people that I don't know on walks. The thing is though, I walk them. I have to lead. I take their finger and pull them along. It's a control thing. I also love to stand at mommy's feet and say, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy!" as many times as I can. I think my record is over 100 times in a row. I do it A LOT. And finally, I like to tell Eddie what to do. He never listens, but I tell him anyway.
Favorite Food: Yeah...not really into food so much. But If I had to pick, I'd say chips. I take one bite and then throw them on the ground.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Hi everyone,

So this week started off a bit NUTS. At 10PM last Monday night, Kelly went in to check on Abby and our baby girl was having her second seizure. She was sitting up, her left side was twitching simultaneously again, and she was very out of sorts. Oh, and she was dripping with sweat, which means that she was probable seizing for quite some time.

Remember that the last time Abby had one of these, we were put in the hospital for a week. The only way we were allowed to leave without putting Abby on any anti seizure medication long term, was if we promised the doctor that if she did have another seizure, we wouldn't freak out. He said we would need to remain calm and be able to give Abby this emergency medication (it is actually valum) to stop the seizures....rectally. And immediately after giving her the meds we would have to call 911 to make sure that it stopped the seizure and that she didn't have a reaction to the medication itself.

And of course, Kelly did all of this. She gave Abby the medication and she called 911. That call got Kelly and Abby a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. Check it out...

The medication knocked Abby out which was good because she needed to rest. Once we arrived at the hospital, her blood was drawn to check for any infections and they placed a catherder to get a urine sample to test for a Urinary Tract Infection. It was no fun.

The blood draw was no picnic...let me tell you. The nurse didn't use numbing creme or anything AND she had to poke both hands to get enough blood. It was horrible because she also tried to put an IV in Abby after she barely got enough blood. Abby was no longer in her nice slumber at this point... she was SCREAMING! It was killing me.

Thankfully, all the tests came back negative and we were able to go home that night. And by night I mean at 3am. Abby was pretty awake by then too but still under the affects of the drugs. She didn't want to go to sleep when we got home. I think she was so overly tired and still out of sorts. Kelly tried numerous times to get her to sleep but to no avail so I ended up grabbing a pillow and a blanket and I slept on the floor by her crib to get her to fall asleep. It worked and Kelly woke me up shortly after Abby fell asleep and we finally got to bed ourselves at about 4:30 0r so.

The docs sent us home with a prescription for Keppra, which is an anti seizure medication. We were hoping to keep Abby off anything like this, but it seems that she needs something now. She is on a very low dose of it, which is good because the side effects of the medication are awful. It makes you dizzy and drowsy and very irritable. We're told that some patients get used to the medication and the side effects can wear off. We are praying that Abby is one of them. She is just not herself on it. It makes us really sad.

Alright then, on to some good news. Man, this is turning into another marathon post, huh? Anyway, Abby gained 1 and a half pounds since her fundo surgery! She is now at 21 and a half lbs. It's working team. Abby is keeping her food down, she's not throwing up to the point of dehydration when she gets sick and we have actually been increasing the amount of formula we give her at night, and she's been tolerating that as well. Woohoo....Abby the chunky monkey. I can't wait!

And finally, we did the Halloween thing of course. It was a great night in our neighborhood and we certainly enjoyed our little munchkins. Take a look at my slide show below.