This past year has been the best year for our family since 2011. So despite the number of celebrity deaths, which really don't affect me at all, I'm quite content with how 2016 turned out.
To be honest, New Years is probably the most emotionally involved holiday for Dave and I, even though it's not much of a holiday. 2014 changed the meaning of New Years for our family.
We left the celebrations with Dave's family a day early, to finish his 12th day off work for Christmas break at home healing from the misery that plagued us that holiday season. As Facebook so kindly reminded me, we endured 3 bouts of stomach flu, 3 cases of pink eye, colds for every one and a sore back for Dave. We just wanted one good night's sleep and to spend the first day of the new year at home to recuperate before normal work schedules resumed.
And then Teddy has his first seizure. We had first responders visit our home for the first time ever. We headed to the ER with AJ in tow. Then Teddy had his second seizure. Dave's parents came and picked up AJ. My mom headed over to spend a few days at our house. We prayed, along with our family and friends, and were terrified. We left the ER that day with a tentative diagnosis of febrile seizures, even though Teddy was technically too young at 5.5 months to be diagnosed with them and his fever was relatively mild. We also had a referral to Children's Hospital to see a neurologist and schedule the first (of several so far) EEGs.
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| The last 3 years have aged us about 10 years. Two of my baby-faced boys snuggling after seizures. |
We had no idea then the journey we were beginning. We were hoping it was febrile seizures that he'd outgrow. We didn't know it would take a month to get to see the neurologist and even longer for the EEG to be scheduled. We couldn't predict that it would take nearly two full years to actually get a diagnosis.
That New Year's Day is the day that our world changed. Actually, our world changed when God blessed us with Teddy, but January 1, 2014 was the first strong hint at what was to come.
Fortunately, there's been so much good through the years and so many blessings, including Teddy being seizure-free the longest he's ever been. That alone removes so much stress, fear and sheer terror from our lives ... or at least puts it in the back of our minds. Still, we remember that day in 2014 like it were yesterday. And you can be certain that all of us ate our black-eyed peas for good luck today!
(It's a Southern tradition to eat black-eyed peas for good luck to start the New Year. I hated them as a child but grew to tolerate them through the years. We skipped them a few years. We ate them January 1, 2016, and it was a good year for us. I'm not superstitious, but this is something we apparently just need to do.)
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