Miss A's 7th Birthday...in the hospital?!

Hi everyone!

I know it's been a while. There have been so many changes going on in my life lately that I don't even know where to begin!

Let me first start by saying I'm sure most of you noticed our Beads, Braids & Beyond Facebook page is gone. I don't know why. I don't know how. It has saddened me and I was quite depressed over it. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to make another one but I did. We're nowhere near our 40k + likes but I know with your help we can get there. Please go like the new page www.facebook.com/BeadsBraidsBeyond and share it with your friends. Thank you so much!

I guess I'll just cut to the chase, Miss A's 7th birthday was last week. After work I took her to a new game room where we live and she had a blast. It was nice just spending some 1-on-1 mother/daughter time. I got a new job a couple of months ago so time has been limited. We try to enjoy every moment we have now that's for sure!

Birthday braids with beads

The next day I was at work and received a call. Miss A had just had a seizure. Many of you know Miss A was diagnosed with epilepsy last Spring. Read more about that here. I grabbed my keys, eyes full of tears and rushed out the door. As I was in a hurry driving to the hospital, the ambulance was rushing her to the emergency room. Once I arrived, she was sleeping. She gets very sleepy after having a seizure, which seems to be pretty common.

Always smiling

Miss A was in the hospital for 4 days. They did an MRI and a 24 hour video EEG. The MRI results were normal. The EEG was abnormal, which was to be expected. The neurologist said she had about 6 "starring spells" or "mini seizures" within the first 2 1/2 hours which can easily go unnoticed as they only last about 10 seconds each. He increased her medication so we're home now and hoping and praying for the best. 

I'd like to take a moment to thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. We truly appreciate it!

Please don't forget to go "like" our new Facebook page!

www.facebook.com/BeadsBraidsBeyond

Half Up, Half Down - Banded Natural Hair with Braid + Dealing With Epilepsy

Hey everyone! I know I haven't updated on the blog in a while but if you follow our Facebook page then you know we have been dealing with a lot here lately. As many of you may know, Miss A had 2 seizures last week, about 12 hours apart. She has absolutely no health issues that we were aware of and never had a seizure before in her life. She was in the hospital for a few days and there was talks of a tumor, brain infection and cysts on both sides of her brain. The doctor officially diagnosed her with having Epilepsy but we don't know what caused her seizures. This is still very new to us and it is terrifying. She is in seizure medication and she is doing better but she still has moments that seem off to me. She will be going in for another EEG in a couple of weeks. She will also be having a sleep study done and I am going to request another MRI because at first the doctor was sure she had cysts and now he "doesn't think" she does. I feel pretty clueless at this point but I am going to remain strong for my little girl. I will try to make a full post next week but I just wanted to update you all and let you all know that is is doing well and I thank you all so very much for your thoughts and prayers.

Picture of her when she was in the hospital. The day she went home. As you can see, she still wanted to play dress up, lol

As you can see from the above picture, Miss A's hair was stretched through banding. If you don't know what banding is, please check out our Banding F.A.Q. post *CLICK HERE* I banded her hair in a few sections for a couple of days using Goody Ouchless ponytail holders (they are very stretchy, cloth and metal free). I used Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer (As you probably know, this is our fav. Discount code: BBBJAN will get you 10% off, good through March 31st, 2012 www.beemineproducts.com) I planned on styling her hair this week but nothing ever goes according to plan so I decided to do this quick style before we headed out to take Lil Man to speech therapy.  I parted her hair from ear to ear with my fingers. I loosely tied off the top section with a ponytail holder, I then made a space between her hair right above the ponytail holder and flipped her ponytail through that section. I braided the remaining hair and tied it off with another matching ponytail holder. I used a little Kinky Curly Curling Custard to smooth the top section down and viola! All done. Nothing too fancy but very easy and cute.

Don't forget to "LIKE" our Facebook page for more pictures and updates. Please feel free to ask questions and share your own pictures! :-)

xoxo, Nik