Tattoo you

 Whenever I visit Damonito, at some point during the visit he'll pull up my shirt sleeve to make sure that my tattoo is still there. He pats it and usually says, "ahhhhhhhh." Damon has a couple of tattoos too, Damonito does the same thing to him. Pats him on the arm and says, "ahhhhhhh."
Damon has his name tattooed on his arm and Damonito loves to look at it. He may recognize the letters as the letters in his name. It's hard to say.

We have a "Damon" stamp for his paperwork. Stuff coming from school and the hospital. It keeps the mounds of paperwork straight.
For fun, Damon will stamp Damonito's arm with his name. He smiles. He's very proud of his "tattoo." I don't know if he recognizes his name but it seems like he knows there's a connection.

Friends

Whitney and I took Damonito to the park again last Sunday. He likes to swing. He likes the slides but he really likes the wood chips. I think it's the texture. He rubs them in his hands and then he flicks them.

 When we got to the park Damonito went straight to the swings. He can't swing alone and he's far too big for the baby swing, although that would be perfect for him. I was trying to get him on my lap so he could swing but we were struggling. I could hear someone saying "Damon!" but I didn't think they were talking to us. I was busy trying to figure out how we could swing. However, I have to admit that his name is unusual enough the I'm always interested when someone else has the same name. I heard someone say "That is Damon!" And I looked up to see a little girl running toward us and her dad was saying, "That is Damon! Hello Damon!! It turned out to be a friend from school. There are 10 students in his class so the odds that we would run into

one of them is pretty slim. The little girl definitely recognized him. He did not recognize her, or if he did he didn't acknowledge it. Someone so far out of context may not make sense to him. When something like this happens it reminds me of things we experience that we take for granted will happen to everyone at some time in their life. Things like riding a bike or driving a car or going to the movies. There is nothing normal about his life. Is that such a bad thing? I don't know. He's pretty happy. Maybe that's all that counts.

Focus and clarity of thought

The other day I found myself in a situation that I've been in before. A young man was having a grand mal seizure and I found myself assisting with the situation. I've only been in a situation one other time when someone I didn't know was having a grand mal. Hers was not nearly as violent. The young man's seizure lasted about 3 minutes. It took about 15 minutes for him to recover to the point he could get up and his mom could help him get in the car.

The thing that struck me about the entire situation was the clarity of thought and focus I had in being able to help him. I knew exactly what to do. On the other hand, I'm a complete basket case when my own grandson has a grand mal which I've seen too many times to count. I panic, I've been known to yell (one time when he was in the hospital I was screaming into the hallway "HE'S SEIZING! HE'S SEIZING!!")
Seeing someone have a grand mal is alarming. No matter how many times you've seen it. Seeing your grandson have a grand mal is horrifying.

Easter Sunday

We visited the park today. It was a lot of fun but when we first got there Damonito broke out in this heat rash all over his body. I was pretty concerned but it turned out to be just fine. The video is from a few weeks ago when we went to the same park.

Happy New Year!

The good news for 2012 is that Clobazam has been approved by the FDA and will be available on the market in the US.
Damonito has taken every anti-seizure medicine on the market. Lennox-Gastaut is a progress form of epilepsy so eventually the medicine is no longer effective.
Clobazam has been the only medication that has consistently reduced his number of seizures.

Clozabam has been available in every country except the US. Damonito could have been part of a trial to study Clobazam but he had been on Felbatol and that could alter his results. His doctor was convinced that he would benefit from Clobazam so he was given Clobazam 4 years ago.
For the past 4 years, his family has had to purchase Clobazam from a Canadian pharmacy to the tune of nearly $700 per month.

So HAPPY NEW YEAR! Damonito's next dose of Clobazam will be covered by insurance.
Hallelujah!

Cast off

 For the weeks that Damonito had his cast on, he stopped tearing paper. His room was completely devoid of paper confetti. It was strange to walk into his room. No tiny pieces of paper stuck to your feet. He loves to shred paper, how could a silly broken arm keep him from doing something that makes him so focused?

For the days following the removal of his cast, he babied his arm. He still moved it by picking it up with his right arm. He just let it hang there like it was useless.

 When I went over for a visit last weekend I was surprised but pleased to see shredded paper everywhere in his room. He's using his left arm like nothing happened. And he's back to making confetti.

Broken Arm not Broken Spirit

Damonito fell and broke his arm. The doctor who set it felt that it wasn't because he'd had a seizure but more likely that he had fallen and was trying to catch himself from falling. He came down hard on his arm and it broke at the elbow.
He had surgery to place 2 pins in his elbow went well. No problems. He spent the night in the hospital. It was his first trip to the Phoenix Children's Hospital, where he will be going from now on. The hospital was great. We will certainly miss Barrow and Dr. Ng (he's taken another job outside of Phoenix)
We were never sure if Damonito was left or right handed and now we're pretty sure he's left handed.
He broke his left arm.
To move his arm, he very gently picks it up with his right hand. He won't move it on it's own.
The good news is that he's getting his cast off for his birthday in 2 days.

If he'd had a seizure, he wouldn't have been trying to catch himself. He would just fall over like a tree. Timber.
When a person has a tonic clonic seizure (better know as a grand mal seizure), the tonic phase comes first: All the muscles stiffen. Air being forced past the vocal cords sometimes causing a cry or groan. The person loses consciousness and falls to the floor. The tongue or cheek may be bitten, so bloody saliva may come from the mouth. The person may turn a bit blue in the face. After the tonic phase comes the clonic phase: The arms and usually the legs begin to jerk rapidly and rhythmically, bending and relaxing at the elbows, hips, and knees. After a few minutes, the jerking slows and stops.