From head to heart

This post will piggy back off yesterday's. I'm not sure how we came to this hospital as a neurology (head) patient and possibly leaving as a cardiology (heart) patient. Today Ansley had 3 more seizures, 1 that was worse that yesterday's and 2 milder ones. The milder seizures are not as concerning as the harsher ones of course. What happens during her seizures is Ansley's BRAIN stops, completely flat lines. When the brain stops the vagus nerve, nerve running from brain to heart, stops as well. When the brain is not telling the heart to pump it stops. Ansley's heart is stopping causing her to turn blue but within a few seconds it goes back to normal rhythm. I must note real quick Ansleys heart is very healthy when not seizing. Her heart is just the innocent bystander to a horrible wreck in her brain. Her brain is affecting her heart. Ok back on track- Right now her seizures are lasting 1 minute give or take some. However if she has a prolonged seizure and her heart is not pumping and giving blood back to the brain it could damage other organs or her heart might not start back and she will not live. Her neurologist has seen it happen and luckily the child was at the hospital and was able to be revived. Well we can't live at a hospital we have to go home and back to life so we have to find a solution until her seizures are under control. The solution is a pacemaker. It's an on demand pacemaker that will only kick in when she seizes. But because Ansley is so small the pacemaker procedure will be a huge procedure consisting of cutting open her chest and sewing the pacemaker into both chambers of her heart. The pacemaker will keep her heart rate from not dropping into the 10s and 20s when seizing. But the problem is now do you want to open up the chest and operate on a healthy heart of an 8 month old??? We will have the cardiologist look at all of her heart monitorings since being here and and he will determine that answer. Once we can get the seizures under control or at least milder this will not be as big an issue. But right now on average she is seizing multiple times weekly. Do we chance that they will remain short and not prolong?? Do the risk of pacemaker outweigh the benefits?? All these questions and many more run through our minds this weekend. We pray Monday the cardiologist will give us definite answers. As for now we will move from the Neuro floor to the cardio floor so she can be monitored closer for her heart issue. Our neurologist, who have I mentioned I LOVE, will follow along with us and Monday we should have a game plan going forward with or without a pacemaker. Thank you again for your prayers and tonight I can not down play the thankfulness I have that God has kept Ansley wrapped in his arms the past few months. after seeing first hand on the EEG how her brain and heart change during these I see how lucky we are the seizures have never lasted longer. Prayer Request: - Neuro and cardio get a clear game plan on what's next. - If the decision is surgery of course we need major prayers for safety during and after. - We can find a med to stop these all together. - They never get longer in duration. - I can work out the best care for Ansley and my work situation. - Aiden understands we have to be here now it's the best place to be. - Most importantly that Ansley NEVER is in pain.