I apologize for the “lack of blogging” lately.. Our lives have been probably the most hectic since way back when Rowie was a newborn & recovering from her two brain surgeries!

It ALL started the night of January 24th – It was a Sunday, and as a lot of you know Sunday evenings from 6pm to 8pm I go bowling RIGHT down the road from my house & have bowled there my ENTIRE life

Well it was approximately 8:30pm when I got home that Sunday nite, and Jeremy (Rowie’s daddy) said that she was acting REALLY tired, that we needed to quickly get her medication & a sippy of milk ready for her.
So I think I held her for maybe 10 minutes then handed her back to her dad so I could draw up her anti-seizure medication, & get that night-time “routine stuff” done.
As SOON as I picked up the syringe to draw up her meds Jeremy said “Oh NO Andrea – she just started seizing, call 911!”  I ran in the living room from the kitchen & saw her in his arms doing JUST that, her eyes had locked to the side, and her arms & legs were jumping in rhythm w/ eachother.. I grab the phone – I call 911 – while I’m on the phone w/ 911 I’m trying to pack a diaper bag along with a ‘mommy & daddy bag” b/c  ALL of Rowan’s seizures land us over an hour away at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital after our LOCAL Hospital gets her stable enough to either go by ambulance or helicopter, whatever the situation may be..

But the REASON we always end up at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh is b/c of her OTHER health problems.. #1 they like her to have head CT Scans done, along with occassional EEG’s & it’s all just to check & make sure the reason for the seizure ISN’T a “Shunt Malfunction”.  As I’m SURE I’ve posted in other posts she has a VP Shunt in her head with a tiny pump that pumps out the extra CSF / fluid that she has on/around the brain, and attached to this pump is a tiny tube & the tube runs clear down through her neck, overtop of her breast-bone & ribs (yet still under the skin ofcourse) , down to her “abdomen area” where the fluid is released & absorbed back into the body. Only problem with these shunts are, they fail. In SOME cases quite often.  I have a DEAR friend who I met via twitter,  her name is Jenn & she is in her early 20′s & has had I wanna say 87 or 88 surgeries since she was ten years old!!  Everyone with a shunt is different obviously, and there are all different kinds of shunts for different people, but I’ll NEVER forget the day Rowan’s Neurosurgeon put in HER shunt I asked him how long I could expect this shunt to last APPROXIMATELY, and he said “consider yourselves VERY lucky if it lasts five years..”  *deep sigh* So I remember Praying at that moment that Rowan ends up being the EXCEPTION to the rule, that maybe we’ll get lucky & she won’t have to have dangerous brain surgery EVERY FIVE YEARS for the rest of her life! As I *knock on wood* LUCKILY, Rowan HASN’T had to have any revisions or replacements or many problems AT ALL with her shunt to date & that makes her a lucky gal – but I guess I made a short story into a very long one LoL because BASICALLY the only point I wanted to get across right now is that EVERY TIME she takes a seizure, or gets very ill she gets sent to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh for her Neurologists & Neurosurgeons to make sure that shunt isn’t malfunctioning b/c SIGNS of shunt malfunction ARE: Seizures & vomiting, etc.

SO SORRY TO CUT SHORT FOR NOW BUT BELIEVE ME – THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF A VERY LONG STORY THAT BEGAN THAT NIGHT OF JAN.24TH BUT DIDNT END UNTIL MARCH 5TH!!!

I will post more soon – hopefully tomorrow being Monday, March 15th If not, DEFINATELY there will be more to come by Tuesday!!

Lotsa luv XOXO     + Andrea, Rowie, & family