You're A Woman Now

Once I turned 17 going on 18, I had to have a pow wow with Dr. Savia. Since he was a pediatric neurologist, he could no longer treat me. My dad took me to my appointment. This was going to be my last visit with a doctor who had been there for me for 10 years.

I hopped up on the patient table for the last time (sad face). I had my last neuro test with him. That reflex test always made me laugh. Not only did it tickle but I would nearly kick him every time. We were discussing who would take over my case. He recommended Dr. Constantino, who is back to being my current doctor and my saving grace. We had to break up for a while once I went to college.

I had been on Depakote for 10 years. That relationship was going to end too. In the most awkward way possible. Once we settled who would take over as my neurologist, we had to talk about the dangers of Depakote. I wasn't very clear on what the problem was. Then it was made clear.

"We need to get you off of the Depakote. In the event that you become sexually active there would be major problems on Depakote with the pregnancy."

Shoot me.


It's awkward enough to hear the term "sexually active" but to have this conversation with my father right there with the expression on his face
....Come on!!

It was near impossible to date before since my dad made it extremely uncomfortable in the first place with his Italian dad presence. Now it was just going to be impossible to date.

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Justice

We're almost through the High School years! Yay! This one will jump to college for a minute too. So sorry. 

My poor father was highly outnumbered by girls. He needed an heir to carry on the family name. It was looking to be unlikely. I was 16, Alyssa was 8, and Maria was 2. Soooooooooo......my parents call us into the living room. I didn't even sit down this time. I knew the words that were about to come out of my mother's mouth. "We're going to have another baby!" Maria spoke some gibberish and I couldn't interpret if it was happy gibberish or pissed off gibberish. I didn't stick around that long, I went back down to MY basement.

But eeeewwww!! After Maria was born, I had to watch that disgusting Miracle of Life movie! So now I knew way more than I wanted to. Can we say dry heaving?? To make it worse, once we knew there would finally be a boy, my mom and I were driving somewhere. I don't remember how this conversation even started but all of a sudden she starts telling me about this book she read to increase the odds of having a boy. OMG STOP!!!! 

Anyways, let's move past all that sick shit so I don't throw up my breakfast. I was attending a Catholic school and was in my English class. We were having a class discussion about Othello. I love Shakespeare. The intercom in the classroom comes on, "Could you send Gabriella to the office, her mom just had her baby!"

Really?? Did we need to be that specific?? Just tell me to come down to the damn office! All of a sudden:

"EWWWWW you're parents are still having kids???? EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Like I didn't already know that. 

January 2002, Justice is born. Oh the joy father's face. Maria did not feel the same. They held him in Maria's arms and she said "I don't like it, take it back!" Well, they didn't take him back. We kinda like him.

I mean give me a break, how can you not love that little face?? The dimples! It's just not fair! The boy after my own heart! He grew on Maria too. They are two peas in a pod. People think they're twins. They might as well be.  


Justice starts playing football, he's exceptionally good. He's a quarter back. But before all of this, when he was in the little league of football, there were tons of tournaments to go to. But he had sisters with softball tournaments too and it was Alyssa's turn. During this trip, something happened. Bet you don't know what. I was in college. I was 22. Justice was 7. Seeing a pattern yet?

My family was driving back from a tournament in St. George that I was not invited to I might add. There really just wasn't room for me in the car and there was no point of driving two cars. Well in the middle of nowhere in Southern Utah, Justice has a grandmal seizure. My mom was sitting in the back seat with Maria and Justice. My dad pulls the car off the road and got out. Alyssa was in the passenger seat, so she got out a blanket for my mom while Maria stayed in the car. My mom called 911, my dad panicked trying to lay on the top of him to control his seizing (that's a big no no). My mom starts yelling at my dad to get off of him (see big no no) so she could judge how bad the seizure was and how long it was. My dad was going to learn the protocol of seizure response later. 


The paramedics didn't get to them for over five minutes since they were in the middle of nowhere. About 30-45 seconds he came out of the seizure. They took Justice and my mom back to St. George and to the ER. Justice had a fever of 103 and an ear infection. He had no signs of this before they were packed up and headed back. The fam stayed in town another night and the next day the ride home was so stressful. They were watching Justice and Maria. They had emergency recovery medicine for Maria and didn't know which one they would have to use it on, if at all. Justice had an EEG later that month and came back normal. The EEG only showed seizure tendencies during the strobe light test. Thank some more 
stars, he never had another event. 

Now, all four of us have had at least one seizure. Maria and I diagnosed with epilepsy. I got the call about his seizure. I was so upset, and I had rage more than anything. Once I found out that his EEG was normal I was so relieved and grateful. 

God I love that boy. 

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