Feb. 6, 2025

We Are The Hansons The Experience of Being a Parent to a Child with a Chronic Illness

We Are The Hansons The Experience of Being a Parent to a Child with a Chronic Illness

Parenting comes with challenges, but when a child has a chronic illness, it adds an entriely new layer of complexity. In this episode, we open up about the emotional, physical, and mental toll of navigating life with a child who has ongoing medical needs. We'll discuss the realities of balancing doctor's appointments, medications, and everyday life while ensuring our child feels supported and included.

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Welcome back to We are the Hansens. If you're new here,

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We're a big, loving, sometimes chaotic family sharing the highs

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and lows of parenting, marriage and everything in between. Today's

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episode is a deeply personal one, one that shaped our

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family in ways we never expected. We're talking about what

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it's like to be a parent to a child with

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a chronic illness. It's a journey full of fear, frustration,

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resilience and love. And while it's never easy, it has

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taught us so much about strength, not just in our child,

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but in ourselves and our family as a whole.

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Let's get started. So finding out that your child has

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a chronic illness isn't something that anyone wants to hear,

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and you tend to remember that exact moment for life.

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It's something that you never want to hear a doctor

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or anyone tell you your child is got a chronic illness.

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From experience, we have dealt with it for a long time.

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First it started our son Gavin. He had what they

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call multi systic kidney and they found it before he

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was born, and he ended up going through a lot

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of medical procedures and stuff like that. But eventually the

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doctor just told us, we don't know what else to do.

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Hopefully he grows out of it. So far he has

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grown out of it for as far as we know.

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That was a scary thing. And then we go to

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our daughter Madison. She had a tumor the size of

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a little bit bigger than a dime, just about nickel

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size in her neck that had to be removed. And

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then Anna, our little Anna, was born three months early.

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She contracted a blood infection called entrobacter, and she also

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contracted another infection called spinal meningitis. Needless to say, she

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had bleeding and fluid on the brain, so they had

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to put a shunt in. Now, you know, battling That

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was scary in itself, knowing that she had to be

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put under and a device placed in the brain to

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help her be able to live a somewhat normal life.

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So far, she's lived what I feel is a great life.

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But I also see the hurdles and struggles that she carries.

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One of them being, you know, headaches, living with headaches.

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Nobody ever wants to live with headaches all the time.

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It is horrible. I used to get headaches really bad

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in migraines. I ended up seeing a chiropractor and that

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took that away. Thank goodness. Hers ain't quite that easy.

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Hers is more complex, and as the doctors tell us

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that she has such a complex medical condition, we are

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walking on shells everywhere we go, just trying to figure

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out what is causing these symptoms. And we still have

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yet to figure it out. We're working on it. We're

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working on it. As a parent with a child with

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a chronic illness. Anna has her headaches, she has her

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stomach issues, she's having throw up issues. You know, we've

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been battling the seizures for a long time. We know

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she's having two different types of seizures. We only know

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what one is, which is the absent seizures. We don't

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know what the other one is. I've been pushing for answers,

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still have none. And then this throw up issue. She

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throws up constantly, and she has since she was a baby,

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so this is nothing new. She's seven years old now,

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she'll be eight in July. So it's always a fight.

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It's hard because you sit there and see your child struggling.

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They get sick of taking medicines, which she's on four

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different medicines right now. They get sick of throwing up

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all the time, which we can't figure out why she's

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doing it. They get sick of everything being sick. They're

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just tired of it. And as a parent, I personally

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really struggle because I hate seeing her sick. And it's

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not a contagious sick, it's the illness that she carries

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with her. So that being said, I struggle really bad.

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I am the one that will push because I'm her

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voice and I want answers as well. I want to

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know why she's getting sick. I want to know why

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she has headaches all the time. I want to know

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why she's having seizures. There has to be answers. There

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has to be something there that is causing this. And

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that's what I say to the doctors all the time.

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And I think the doctors are getting pretty sick of me.

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But that's okay. They can deal with it because I'm

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sure if it were their child, they'd be the same

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way as I am pushing for answers. So we have

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a gastrologist, we have a neurologist, we have a family doctor,

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and we have a specialist for her eyes. We have

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all these doctors and so far, none of them have

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given us the answers that we need. We are still

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sitting in limbo. We're still on all these medicines, and

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most of the medicines are trial medicines. They either work

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or they don't. They try them for two to three

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weeks and then they switch her to a different one.

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It's not fun, not fun at all, and us as

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parents have to battle to get answers. And it's not fair,

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you know. We sit there and watch our child go

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through medical procedures and doctor's appointments and they're sticking them

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constantly with ivs and needles. And who wants to sit

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there and watch that? I mean, I guess if you're

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a nurse, you may because you're learning. But I don't

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want to sit there and watch them stick my child

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and poke and prod her and hurt her. It's miserable,

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and it's miserable more for them. So even though we're

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feeling miserable, I just sit there and think, Man, I

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feel really bad for her, and it's something no parents

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should have to go through. I'd rather just take the

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illness from her and put it on myself and deal

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with it on my own, then watch her go through it.

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She doesn't want to do all this. She doesn't want

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to go to the doctors. She doesn't want to go

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to see the specialist. You know, she doesn't want to

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take the medicine she's on. She's getting tired, and I

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don't blame her. She wants to be like every other child.

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No medicine, no doctor's appointments all the time, not missing

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a lot of school, because she does miss a lot

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of school going to all these appointments. So it gets rough.

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I'm sure if you're out there listening and you know

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somebody with this chronic illness or any chronic illness, you

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will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's rough. It's

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almost like you're on a roller coaster and you hit

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a bump. Kurt goes off track a little bit, but

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then it goes back on. And you're riding along and

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you take a turn and you're goes off the track

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a little and then it goes back on. It's like

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that up and down, up and down, side to side.

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You know, we never know what the next day is

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going to bring, or even through the middle of the night.

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I remember her first seizure she had. It was early

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in the morning and I was in the bedroom watching

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the news. Jeremy had just came back into the bedroom,

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and Anna and the kids were in the living room

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watching TV cartoons. I heard a noise and it sounded

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like a book or something fell on the floor, and

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I heard a loud thud and Madison yelled mom. Anna

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and I went running out there and she was in

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a full blown seizure on the floor in front of

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the television. She had already went to the bathroom and

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her pants. I picked her up and I was trying

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to get her to come to but she was shaking

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so bad. I couldn't hold her, so I handed her

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to Jeremy. He sat with her and talked to her

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and made sure she didn't bite her tongue. It lasted

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a good amount of time. It was like two minutes

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and forty six seconds or something like that. That it lasted.

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That is something I never want to see. It made

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my heart break. It was to the point where when

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my kids get hurt, and some of you may know

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this from experience, I'm that person. When my children get hurt,

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I cannot deal with seeing them like that. So in

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this sense, when Anna collapsed and she was in her

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seizure and I seen her. My heart started beating so

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fast because I was so sk scared. It felt like

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it was going to beat right out of my chest.

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At that point, I ran into the bedroom and I'm

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trying to find clothes because I'm wearing pajamas and I'm

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trying to get dressed in regular clothes. As I'm yelling

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out to the living room, should we call the ambulance

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and Jeremy said, no, I think she's okay. And at

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that point I walked out to see her and she

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was not with it, like I could put my hand

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in front of her eyes and she was in a

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dead stair, just staring off into space, wasn't responding to me.

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I was scared. I've never ever seen somebody have a seizure,

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so that scared me really bad. I called her pediatrician

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and I asked if I could bring her in and

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what we just experienced, and she said, yeah, bring her in.

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So I hurried up, got Anna all cleaned up, and

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we jetted to the doctor's office. And we get there

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and Anna was still so out of it. The doctor

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looked at me and said, this isn't our Anna. She's

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definitely got something going on. She said, I can either

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call an ambulance or you guys can take her to

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Springfield Hospital and I will call up there to let

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them know you're coming to the er. So that's what

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we did. We got in the car and we went

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from there to Springfield to the hospital. Immediately. As soon

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as we got there, they called us right back. Didn't wait.

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They got her started on Kepra, which is a seizure medicine.

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They did a bunch of labs, a bunch of scans,

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they did the work upon her. Then they sent us

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on our way and Anna slept for a long time.

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She was so drained from just that two minute, forty

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six seconds seizure that it took everything out of her.

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She was drained. I did get her to eat a

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little bit that night, but I was so scared to

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leave her sleep anywhere but next to us, because I

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did not want something to happen in the middle of

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the night and me not hear her. So there was

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that time. Then she had another seizure. We were actually

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going to Branson to go out on a boat, and

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we were traveling there and we got about thirty five

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minutes from home and Maddie was sitting in the back

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seat with her and Torn, and she yelled, mom, Anna,

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and I looked back and Anna had a piece of

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she was two in a piece of gum, and she

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just was in a full blown seizure again. So I

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got the gum out of her mouth and I told Jeremy, Jeremy,

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you need to pull over. So we got to where

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we could get into a Walmart parking lot. We got

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her out up and moving around a little bit, but

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she was still real hired, not wanting to do anything.

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She slept for like four and a half hours after

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that seizure, and as soon as she woke up, she

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didn't really remember what had just happened, nothing at all,

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just that she was really tired, and she said, can

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we go on the boat now? She remembered where we

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were going. We did end up going out on the

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boat after that, but scary. And then the last seizure

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she had, we were working and her and Torn were

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with us. They were sleeping in the car and I

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had the windows down and we were within four feet

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of the car, so we weren't that far from the car,

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and I heard Torren scream for mom and dad. We

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went over there, and Anna again was sound asleep, but

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in a full blown seizure. It's not fun, not fun

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at all, and it's very heartbreaking as a parent. And

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I'm sure if you guys that are listening, if any

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one of you have a family member anything that has

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chronic illness or anything like that, you would understand what

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I'm talking about. It's not fun and it's heartbreaking. You

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don't ever want to see a family member go through this.

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People often don't see what life is like behind our scenes.

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You know, behind the scenes, like the doctor's appointments, the medications,

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the sleepless nights, the advocating for your children. You become

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not just a parent, but a medical expert and a researcher,

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a full time advocate for your child's needs. And that's

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what I do. I work, I advocate, and I do

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everything I can for my little girl. There are the

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daily struggles, balancing doctor's visits I often forget about doctor's

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appointments until the last minute, and school schedules, making sure

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siblings aren't feeling left out, Navigating insurance battles because we

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do that often. And then there are the emotional struggles

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which I've had because watching my child and pain and

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feeling helpless and worrying about their future. You often do that.

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One of the hardest parts is that unexpected stuff. Some

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days are great and you almost forget on those great

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days about the child's diagnosis because you're living a normal day.

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But not all days are like that. Some days you

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just see a whole different level. And everybody asked me

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how it affects our whole family. When one child has

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this chronic illness, it affects the whole family because it

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changes the way we parent, It changes the way our

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marriage functions, even the way the other kids experienced childhood.

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It changes that for our other kids. It's been a

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lesson of patience and empathy. They've learned to be more understanding,

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more flexible, but we've also had to be intentional about

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making sure that they don't feel their needs come second.

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It's a delicate balance in one we don't always get right.

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It's hard, but we have also learned to take things

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one day at a time. You can't predict the future,

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and you will worry about it constantly. It will only

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rob you of the joy in the presence. We celebrate

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the small victories, good days, progress, moments of normalcy, and

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when we have those. It's awesome. It's awesome just seeing

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the happiness and it's almost like a bright light of

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all that special moment. We've learned that we are not

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alone in this. There's other families battling this same thing

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we are. In fact, I met a lady yesterday whose

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granddaughter has the same thing our Anna has, and she's

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got it worse off than Anna because she's in a

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hospital intubated because her seizures are so bad and they

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don't know if it's from the shunt. She's had eight

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shunt replacements and they're not sure. May Anna has never

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had a replacement shunt. Her shunt has never malfunctioned that

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we know of, and I mean it could be malfunctioning,

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but not enough that would cause her to have to

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have a replacement shunt. I'm gonna end this with some

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closing thoughts. Here's what I want to say. This journey

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is not one we would have chosen, but it has

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shaped our family in ways we've never expect did. It

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has made us more compassionate, more resilient, and more grateful

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for the good days. To all the parents out there

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that are navigating life with a chronically ill child, you

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are seen, You are not alone, and you are stronger

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than you know. Thank you for listening to We Are

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the Hansens. If this episode resonated with you, share it

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with someone who might need to hear it, and as always,

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we'd love to hear from you your experiences, your struggles,

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your victories. Reach out to us on our Facebook page

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at we Are the Hansens, or send us an email

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at we arethe Hansen Show at gmail dot com and

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if you can get over to our YouTube che channel

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we Are the Hansens and subscribe. I appreciate you all

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and have a great day.