Christmas Gifts

Lisbeth and her Christmas stocking...

...getting some help from our cat, Sal.

Hummingbird socks!

Cairn takes a nibble of Lisbeth's new little unicorn...

Lisbeth and "Big Sister Kaitlyn."

Lisbeth's spot at the table, waiting for her till later...

After a nap. Lisbeth with her sister-in-law, Tracey.

Day after Christmas breakfast.

Silly Lis trying on Momma's glasses...

Lisbeth spent the whole day with us on Christmas by herself (her one-on-one helper called in sick), and slept overnight. She was clear and able to enjoy opening her gifts and being with her family. This is my best Christmas gift, for there are many holidays and birthdays in which Lisbeth cannot partake or even remember because she is in the throws of a seizure cluster. I am grateful that her seizures held off until afterwards (she is down with a seizure cluster now as I type this post). Lis had some anxiety Christmas afternoon; we laid her down on the couch in a quiet room and did massage and tried to redirect her thoughts without success and finally had to administer her PRN Ativan. Being with groups of people, even those she loves, can trigger great anxiety for Lisbeth. So she napped during our dinner and was able to thoroughly enjoy a quiet turkey supper later in the evening. And then she slept through the night, which is a small miracle in itself!!

Happy Holidays, All!

Plus and Take Away

Lisbeth and our cat Jasper (who takes over as guardian angel cat when Lis visits us...)

Plus and take away, a favorite old Lis-ism, perfectly describes what's been going on with Lisbeth's meds of late. Lis has been experiencing tough symptoms since starting on Keppra this summer. Keppra does a fantastic job inhibiting big seizure activity, but the neurological symptoms that slip through the dam are rage, insomnia, loss of appetite, dark perseverative thoughts such as, I am getting dead, body all broken, need to go to church for the dead party (funeral) and light the candles), hallucinations, and pain. We reduced the Keppra to the lowest dose, thinking that this would alleviate some of these symptoms, but no, even on 500 mg a day, this is what we're seeing. Last week we started Lisbeth on Lexapro - she has been off the Cymbalta since July, and hasn't had an anti-depressant on board since then. We are hoping that the Lexapro can buffer some of these disturbances, because if we have to take Lisbeth off Keppra, we have no other anti-epileptic to try. We've reached the end of the med road, we've tried them all, and they all have crap side affects. Choose your poison. Keppra at least does the job of inhibiting seizures - she's only having 3 or 4 grand mals a month now. No other med has worked this well. But the trade off may just be too much. This is SO HARD for Lisbeth, and extremely frustrating for us. Bah, humbug.

Meanwhile, we have lots of wonderful holiday items in the Etsy shop. Lisbeth's big sister Kaitlyn and brother-in-law Cory graciously modeled some of the new mandala tees for us last week, and the weather cooperated with a sweet dusting of snow.

So come on over and browse around - there's still time to pick up some last minute gifts from Brainstorm Studio! Let us know in the comments on checking out that you came by way of this blog, and we'll include a beautiful mandala art card with your purchase! Happy Holidays!