Life

[Update on 7/12. Original post follows.] Much has happened over the last week. She--Logan--had surgery to remove a small mass on her brain that the doctors believed to be the source of the seizures. Going into the surgery, they thought it was a cavernoma, however, during the removal, they realized it was not. Further tests of the mass indicated it was a dormant encapsulated infection causing the seizures. Currently, Logan is on anti-seizure medication, but will be weaned to smaller doses over the next 3 months. Thankfully, a post-op MRI showed that there is no trace of the mass left on her brain.

Logan's aunt set up a web page that friends and family could visit for updates on her progress and to leave messages of support. It looks like all the prayers and well-wishes that this little girl has received have been working. I've been visiting the site daily and am happy to say that, as of yesterday, Logan was released from the hospital! Hopefully she will come and visit us at camp before the summer is over. One of her sisters went on our trip today and I knew that she wanted to bring some little prizes home for Logan, so I gave her the few prize tickets that I had, to contribute to her collection.

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Today was one of those days where I had to remind myself to be thankful for what I have.

The morning started routinely with the Camp Director, Chris, and me going over the activities for the day. A group Leader came in to our office and explained that one of her Kindergarteners was complaining that her leg was hurting and that she couldn't walk. The group had been playing Simon Says at the time. So Chris walked down to the Kindergarten room to see what was going on. He expected to just see that the girl was making excuses not to play the game. But, what he saw was that the girl was right...she couldn't walk. She appeared very stiff and her right leg started to twitch. Chris picked her up and carried her into our office. At that point, she was mostly just whimpering and saying that she couldn't stop her leg from twitching. I knelt beside the chair where she was sitting and tried to comfort her and keep her calm. Chris proceeded to take out her registration form and see if she had any medical conditions, etc., that we needed to know about immediately...there were none. The twitching then began in her right arm. Over the next minute or two, she started slumping over closer and closer to me. She was drooling on me and her left fingers clenched up as her right arm continued to twitch (pretty violently at this point). I was holding her around the waist to keep her from banging against the chair...Chris immediately called the township police (which we had a direct number for in our camp cell phones) so that they could dispatch the ambulance. Chris called her mother as well. At this time, the little girl was unresponsive to my questions...I noticed that her eyes began to twitch as well, and it appeared they were slightly rolling back into her head. I continued to cushion her head, as I knew it was obvious she was having a seizure. She had no history of epilepsy so we were very frightened. Chris ran outside to wait for the ambulance so he could direct them to the nearest entrance. I was so worried that the girl would bang her head on the arm of the chair, that I sent a counselor to get Chris to come back in to help me move her to the floor. He picked her up and laid her down on the floor, as I cushioned her head with a rolled-up t-shirt. We noticed that she had wet herself, as she lost control of her bodily functions (which usually happens with a Grand Mal seizure). The ambulance was there within 1 minute of getting her on the floor. She began coming out of the seizure as they were standing above her...as she became more lucid, she began to cry, frightened and confused as to what was happening.

Chris went with the paramedics in the ambulance, as they needed someone to ride along because Mom would be meeting them at the hospital. At the hospital, Chris said the little girl began to cry at the sight of her mother. Throughout the rest of the camp day, we were very worried about this little girl. She has two older sisters at our camp, that we were also concerned about...we didn't want them to be upset over what happened.

Chris talked to the girl's mother late this afternoon and we found out that she had had a CAT scan...apparently, the doctors did not like what they saw on the scan and decided to fly her to Children's Hospital. Needless to say, this can't be good news.

Please keep this 6-year-old girl in your thoughts and prayers. She's all I can think about and I nearly cried after she left in the ambulance this morning. I will make sure to update once I find out more.