What a year it has been!

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Kendal going to see the doctor for her crazy seizures, although, we weren't exactly sure IF they were seizures then. At the end of March last year she started doing this wierd jerky thing every now and then, so I took her to see our family doctor here in town. We figured it was a muscle thing, but our doctor sent us to see a neurologist at Primary Children's in SLC. In the meantime the jerks/seizures were getting more severe and were occuring more often, like 10 to 15 times a day.
After weeks of tests and months of different medications, it was determined that Kendal has infantile spasms, a severe form of epilepsy in infants. There is a whole huge story, but I just wanted you to see some pictures.

These 2 are of Kendal in April of 2007, when the seizures were growing stronger and stronger and we were trying to figure out medicine dosages.

These 2 pictures were in July 2007 when she was on a hard core injectable drug, ACTH. She looked horrible and felt even worse. It was a rough summer with ACTH; kidney stones, high blood pressure, MASSIVE weight gain, compromised immunity, twice daily trips to the ER for 9 weeks, twice daily injections for 9 weeks, Potassium levels too low, and a few other things including STRESSED out momma!! By this time she had stopped talking completely and remained totally silent, besides crying, for about 6 weeks.

Here is Kendal last week. She is doing so well. The speech therapist and occupational therapist did a 6 month review on her last week. She is about up to snuff in her motor skills, social, emotional, and self help areas. Her speech is still around 22 to 24 months, but it is amazing how many new words she has been saying lately. She is still on some medication that is considered a speech inhibitor and she will be on this medicine, an anti-convulsant, for a few years. She is doing so well and I am so grateful that everything has turned out okay with her. We are looking forward to a super summer this year since we were pretty much home bound last summer. She is such a sweet heart and I am so proud of her and what she is overcoming.