Fighting the Vaccine Battle with Half a Brain

by Anne Abbot

TheSnapMom.com

Excerpts:

Our daughter, Roz, was born a happy, healthy little girl on June 17, 2010. She developed just like all children her age and hit her milestones on or before the target age. My husband and I decided to do vaccines one at a time on a delayed schedule after our first family doctor gave her PediaX vaccine with a combination of vaccines. At the age of one, we began with her DTap vaccinations and spread them out over a period of time. Then at her two-year checkup, we decided to begin her MMR vaccinations.

On June 12, 2012, Roz was given the MMR vaccine. She had the normal fussy period, as she did with the DTap, but after a week, she began to seem a little off, not as responsive, and she continued to be fussy. She began to run a low-grade fever on June 27. On June 28, Roz had been outside for a short period of time. After her shower, my husband put her in the chair. He walked in after about five minutes and noticed she wasn’t moving and was in a staring state, unresponsive. We immediately rushed her to the ER. After 30 minutes, the doctor confirmed she was having a seizure and had a fever of 101.1. They ran a series of tests and found nothing in the ways of infection, virus or bacteria. They transferred her to Children’s Hospital, where we spent the night for observation. The doctors told us that she had had a febrile seizure. They told us not to worry because febrile seizures are common in children.

On November 1, Roz woke up acting strangely; then she suddenly began to seize. I administered Diastat. She woke up an hour later and went into another seizure. We found ourselves back at Children’s with croup this time. Beginning in December, she had seizures about every month, and they began to get worse. Instead of having partial complex seizures, she began to have partial complex that generalized and Tonic-clonic (TC) seizures. By April 2013, she was having seizures every week. In the middle of April, Roz had three major TC seizures within a week’s time. We decided to take her to Cincinnati Children’s to get some answers. Throughout all the seizures, Roz continued to develop according to her age except for a speech delay. Over a period of time, her seizures changed but became more frequent.

Our neurologist suggested that we meet with the epilepsy doctor to see if Roz would be a candidate for brain surgery. On October 7, 2013, Roz was admitted for a week of VEEG monitoring and major scans that concluded she was a candidate for resectioning surgery of her right occipital lobe.

She would have to have half of her brain removed.

Read the complete story at TheSnapMom.com.