This is the end of one of the very first seizures we ever recorded Raelynn having. Before I play the whole video, I just wanted to say a couple things I noticed as I watched it again.
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As you’ll be able to tell from this video, we were very much still trying to figure out Raelynn’s seizures as this point. Raelynn was 17 months old, and we started fostering her less than two weeks before this. I think we had only just been able to talk with her neurologist once. So you’ll hear us wondering about whether we thought her seizure was over yet, and we kind of disagreed about it. You’ll see us checking her eyes, to see whether her pupil react to light. While we still do that sometimes, it’s pretty rare, because it’s not always the best indicator for Raelynn. For Raelynn, the best indicator that she’s done with a seizure seems to just be her general alertness. Once she stops looking up and to the side, you can usually just kind of tell that she’s not zoning out anymore.
But there was definitely a long learning process that we had to go through to get to this point. Between Abby and I, we’ve literally seen over 10,000 of Raelynn’s tonic-clonic seizures. So we may not be experts in everyone’s seizures, but I think we’re definitely experts in hers.
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The links below show a few seizures Raelynn has had throughout the years:
▶️ 17 months old: youtu.be/6BEdEB-OJXw
▶️ 18 months old: youtu.be/XhZMx7GHzBk
▶️ 21 months old: youtu.be/WXOeCJKECb8
▶️ 2 years old: youtu.be/om0LVyj74Xs
▶️ Almost 3 years old: youtu.be/pVMUT-pg0zU
▶️ 6 years old: youtu.be/EYNXrQSr9ug
▶️ 8 years old: youtu.be/GcIrDB5qkT0
A few playlists you may find helpful:
⏩ Seizures: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Tobii Dynavox: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Assistive Equipment: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Medical Procedures: youtube.com/playlist…
⏩ Living Life with Disabilities: youtube.com/playlist…
ABOUT RAELYNN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Raelynn has epileptic encephalopathy, global developmental delay, cerebral palsy, cortical vision impairment, and I could go on and on. In fact, I’ll go on a little more. Raelynn is quadriplegic. She has a gastro-jejunal (GJ) tube through which she “eats” all of her food. She has a vagus nerve stimulator (vns), and is currently getting intravenous immunoglobulin (ivig) treatments to hopefully help with her seizures. She regularly wears a shaker vest, uses a nebulizer, and a cough assist machine to help her breath better, especially when she seems extra susceptible to aspirating on her oral secretions.
Raelynn’s been to the doctor more times than the rest of our family combined!
In this whole situation, if we were looking for hope in our circumstances, we honestly wouldn’t find much. Raelynn will probably always be in a wheelchair. She’ll probably always be fed via a food pump. She’ll probably never talk. And she has virtually no chance of getting better.
I can’t tell you how many times people have told me, “God can heal her.” I’ve actually come to find it a little funny when people say that (and I’m a pastor!). I know that God CAN heal her, and I know that God will heal her in eternity, but the point of life is not that we wouldn’t have difficult circumstances.
God is using Raelynn exactly as she is right now. I see how much I’m a better person because of Raelynn. I see the ways God has changed my family, the things He’s taught us, the people He’s put us in connection with, all because of Raelynn’s problems. When I see how much God uses her disabilities, I see that God takes the bad things, the hard things, the hopeless circumstances of our lives and brings beauty, goodness, and hope from them all.
That’s what this channel’s about.
We post videos of Raelynn’s life, seizures, and other disabilities to this channel three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).
If this sounds like something you could benefit from, please consider subscribing! Your subscription will help us keep making videos of Raelynn’s life and assistive technologies! ❤️
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