It's Elementary My Dear

Here we go, Elementary. I didn't hate Elementary; there were a lot of good memories from those years. Kindergarten....the bomb! Snack time, nap time, play time, no seizure time, and met my best friend time. My best friend for life! Jess has been there through it all and to this day she is my very best friend. Really, another sister.

The summer going into second grade wasn't just a change in how my mind was working, I had to figure out how to work with my mind. Not to mention I didn't want anyone to know. I was already a tomboy I didn't need another reason to get teased.


Yeah Muhammad Ali hugged me and yes I met Karl Malone and the rest of the team....just sayin. But as you can see....Tomboy. But you may be thinking, who would tease her??? Well, stupid boys. I got my revenge though. I was taller than most of them, and apparently stronger. They're big talk turned into scared sprinting when went after them! Plus, I beat them at nearly every recess sport. What a bunch of cry babies too!


Sorry side tracked. My parents had to make my teachers aware EVERY YEAR that I had epilepsy. What to do if I had a seizure. And any problems I may experience with the absence seizures. Then, they had to set up for me to go to the office at lunch time. Sometimes before, to take my Depakote. Fortunately, Jess' mom (my other mom) worked in the front office and already knew the situation. Then there was another secretary, Cindy, who gave me my medicine the most. I would go into the office and she would start singing the Cinderella song but changed it to Gabriella, so she always got a smile out of me.

I was doing everything my little brain could think of to hide this from  the kids. They gave me a hard time for going to the office everyday.

"OOOOOOO Gabby has to see the principle!"

"Gabby is in trouble again!"

By the way, my nickname is Gabby. No one could say Gabriella correctly and I gab pretty damn well, obviously. At any rate I just went with it, I figured maybe it will help build on my tough girl persona. Sometimes I would throw in that I had to call my mom or some B.S.

I was still able to be really active, there were times that I would have absence seizures and just space out. Certain days they were REALLY wanting to make my day awesome, I would black out for a few seconds instead of still being able to see when I was having one. Luckily, it didn't happen during tether ball that would have hurt like a mother!

It wasn't just my social life, my physical life, it also started to affect how I was learning.

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Alyssa

As I mentioned at the end of my last post; I was on Depakote. I remained on Depakote for a long time and I'll start talking about how that went. Starting out, it was rough, but it was more effective than the others tried before. Because of the Depakote, I had to have blood levels checked every three months and was miserable. Eventually, having my blood drawn was the least of my problems.


Here we are, the beginning of 1994. This whole time I was an only child. That was about to change. When I was informed of this change I threw quite a tantrum. Ran upstairs to my room and slammed my door. Ha! I showed them!

Alyssa was born September of 1994. All eyes on me OUT the window! "Oh she's so beautiful!" Whatever. Needless to say I was just a bit bitter at the time. She was/is beautiful, I was just pissed off. I mean look at those curls!

When she was still an infant, I was upstairs sneaking my allowance early since my mom was distracted with crying, crying, and more crying. Alyssa had been sick, and on this day she had a very high fever that my mom was trying to get under control. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough. Alyssa had what's called a febrile seizure. A febrile seizure happens in kids when their body temperature is out of control.

Back to the story. I hear my mom scream out "Call 911 Gabriella! Call 911!" I started to panic and picked up the phone, called 911, but had no idea what was going on. I didn't receive the 911 don't freak out seminar so what was I doing? Freaking out! My mom is relaying to me what's wrong. She was downstairs and I was upstairs. Wireless phones didn't exist in the house yet. Paramedics show up, I get off the phone and finally downstairs. By that time, she wasn't seizing anymore, but I knew it was bad. That's what I remember about her seizure. 

She had one more febrile seizure while she was still a baby. My mom was in the basement with her and my dad was upstairs where I had made the 911 call for her before. Something about that room maybe?? Just starts triggering craziness?? Eventually, she got tubes in her ears that prevented more fevers and more seizures.

Ya, I love her lots! And thank the stars above she was never diagnosed with epilepsy. However, this is the part I let you know that epilepsy is a genetic trait in my family. My dad's side. Because of the gene, it made her more vulnerable to the febrile seizure. I'll talk about that awesome gene a little later on.

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