October 15, 1999..... At this point things were pretty much the same every day. Nicole was really having a hard time now talking, walking, eating. She was so tired all the time and couldn't keep her balance even sitting up. We were very concerned. The doctors keep ensuring us that she was still trying to get use to medication and also overcome the problems caused by so many seizures.
A few days have gone by and today is October 17th. The day we will never forget and it wasn't anything from Nicole's drama. The flood of '98 hit us in New Braunfels. Nicole of course had a nine minute seizure today and had to be taken to the ER via one of our volunteer fire department guys in his four wheel drive. No EMS vehicle could reach us do to high water. We remained at the hospital most of the morning due to the fact that no one could come and get us. Thank God a good friend walked in the ER looking for his mother (concerned since he hadn't seen her since that morning). Upon finding out she wasn't there but at her home he offered us a ride back to our house. The water was already in Donny's parents home and slowy rose. It was horrible. We had to evacuate our home as well and sent Nicole to her other Grandpa and Grandma's. We took what we could from our house and left.
What a night. Concerned about water getting in our home and concerned whether Nicole would be ok during the night left us without much rest. The next day came very quickly. Luckily the water had stopped rising one block from our home. We were so thankful. So many, including our own family, lost everything. But it was time to clean up and try to move on.
October 20, 1999.....Things had been looking up until today. Nicole had a full blown grand mal seizure which lasted over 55 minutes. We once again returned to the hospital. This time her left arm and leg were affected more than usual. She was placed on Phenobarbital as well as Dilantin. We get to home tomorrow. God only knows what will happen!!!!
Sorry this is taking so long to do! I am trying to fit in doing this site with work, family and all else that goes on.
To make the next year a little shorter......Nicole continued throughout the year to have seizures. We seemed to changed meds every few months. She took Dilantin, Phenobarbital, Tegretol, Topamax, Depakote, Gabitral, Lamictal, Tranzine, Clarazapem and also had to have eye ointment put on her eyes every night due to excessive swelling. The eye doctor related the swelling to the PWS on the outside and inside of her eyes. All of the medicines she took did not work together or separate it seemed and she was on the maximum dose for each one.