Den Fina Elina Ballerina

After only 3 rehearsals with a very talented friend from church, the girls in Elina's Sunday school class put on a little Swan Lake performance at the talent show this evening. Elina was SO excited. She has always wanted to take ballet lessons, so this gave her some of that exposure. (All the other girls in her class have taken ballet, most of them for several years).

 Madeline, Jocelyn, Emarie, Hayden, Abby, Elina

Nina with her little swans.

Below is a video of the performance, scroll down.

I guess now is as good a time as any to tell that Elina had another seizure last Friday (Aug 12). It was very similar to last time: in her sleep, in the morning, full body (grand mal), did not stop on its own, responded to meds, she was out of it for a long time after, only opened her eyes and spoke a few words after receiving a priesthood blessing, doesn't remember anything for a period of 4 hours, slept a long time, had nausea and a headache, bouts of fear several days after when she had to be hugged.

The main difference this time was that we did not have to go to the hospital because we were prepared with emergency medicine at home. Isak was the one who discovered her. It has been 9 months since her last seizure, and we were told we could 'breathe a sigh of relief' if she did not have another one in 6 months. Well, statistics aside, now she has an official Epilepsy diagnosis since she has had several idiopathic (with no apparent cause) seizures. Another common thing between last time and this time, is that she was low on sleep. Sleep deprivation can trigger seizures. She had been staying up late the week leading up to this last seizure, and the first one in December she was low on sleep too, having been up at night with allergy attacks, and going to bed a bit late. So bedtime is very strictly enforced at our house now, and we are praying that her seizures stay few and far between so she doesn't have to take daily medicine for this illness.

With all that in mind it is especially sweet to see her here: