Day 4

Last night went fairly well. My mom was at the hospital with me all day and then my dad and Mark came up around dinner time. We were able to eat together and then they stayed around until 9:30 or so. It is nice to have company because it makes the time go faster.

Once again, I went home to sleep last night and Mark stayed at the hospital with Ruby. I debated about staying, but it sounds like she was up until 2:30am so I am glad I didn't stay because the sleep was good for me. I do feel bad for Mark who is not getting a lot of sleep; hopefully he can get a nap in today. He is staying at the hospital with me today which is nice. Last night Ruby's blood sugar dropped fairly low so they had to give her some apple juice to get it back up again. This morning it was also a little low, but after we fed her it had stabilized again. Because of this fluctuation in her blood sugar, we will for sure have to spend another night here. If her blood sugar stays at an okay level for another 24 hours, then we will be able to go home.

Ruby had an EEG done this morning to monitor her brainwaves and like we anticipated, the doctor didn't see any change in her seizure pattern. It is early in the diet yet, so we didn't think he would find anything different. Although it would have been nice to have an improved EEG already this early, we know that the one they do in 4 weeks will probably tell us a lot more about if the diet is working or not.

So, for the time being, we just keep waiting to see how Ruby continues to react. We have not seen much decrease in seizure activity, but sometimes it takes kids weeks or months to get seizure control on the diet. I have to admit that waiting to see what will happen is the hardest part for me. Sometimes I wish I knew how Ruby was going to be a year from now; other times I am glad I don't know because the future scares me. Will the seizures stop? Will she start to make progress in her development? Will she be able to sit up? Walk? Talk? Will she have other complications? All of unknowns are hard to deal with sometimes. We continue to just take one day at a time, because thinking about the next month or year is overwhelming. I am thankful God holds the future and I don't have to (or at least I try not to) worry about it.

On another note, I have been having some contractions on and off this past week. They did get a little more intense last night, but then they calmed down again. Right now we are just watching them and I am trying to lay low. If you could pray that they stop we would appreciate that.

We will post more again when we know more. Thanks for your prayers!