It's a 10

Elijah had his first true "10" migraine yesterday. It was a little scary for everyone at the house.  Of course mom and dad were off getting mom's wallet that she left at work when the bad storms rolled in and Elijah's head went haywire.  We got the first call that something was wrong with Elijah 15 minutes from home. The second call two minutes from home!

All of the kids have been seizure and migraine trained.  They followed Elijah's plan. I spent two hours massaging his head, getting cold packs and adjusting the bio feedback app for Elijah. Did I mention we were also trying to get supper ready? The kids were great! All took turns watching Elijah when I had to do something with supper. They even turned on closed captioning so the noise from the tv wouldn't distrub Elijah!

There were moments where Elijah couldn't feel his legs and when he calmed down he would seize. His breathing, or lack there of was a little scary, but by 830pm Elijah has recovered and the rest of us were exhausted! Elijah had lots of questions about how bio feedback works and for all my mom comforting I was rewarded with 30 minutes of snuggles from my big boy Lili, who is not the snuggling type!

Fast forward to this morning,  and guess who hasn't been taking his seizure meds? Yes, Elijah has not and after I let into him for being irresponsible with his health I think he understands headaches like yesterday happen without medication!  It's not easy being a fourth grader who has to take meds, but its not easy being a parent of a fourth grader that has the issues Elijah has either! I want him to be independent and not limited by his epilepsy and migraines!  I want him to feel like he has some control and let him manage his medication, but yesterday makes me re think all that.

Can I wrap him in bubble wrap? Probably not and I doubt any of my kids would let me. Elijah's pride is a little hurt that I'm making him take his meds in front of me, instead of trusting that he took them, but he'll get over it. At some point he'll be able to go back to managing his own meds. He's been pretty good at it, but wanting to be "normal" got in the way. Soon he's bound to realize normal is over rated and that his health (or avoidance of migraines) is more important than what others think! I hope that he never has a 10 migraine again,  but if he does I hope he feels his family has earned a 10 in helping him get through the rough stuff!