The Surprise Turn

How It All Began It was a normal Tuesday.  The kids were at school.  My husband and I were both working.  I was in a meeting when I saw my phone ring and the number on the caller ID was my daughter's school.  That's never a good sign, right?!   That moment is when our life took a surprise turn. My oldest daughter was a healthy, active 5th grader.  The school nurse called on that normal Tuesday, to tell me that my daughter came to the school clinic complaining that there was a problem with her vision.  When my daughter looked at her class assignment, she realized there were sections she couldn't see.  I knew in my gut that something was very wrong. We went to our local hospital emergency room.  They did a CT scan and didn't see anything unusual.  The hospital discharged her, but as we were walking down the hall to leave, my daughter vomited.  That totally gross, but divine intervention, bought her an overnight ticket into ...

NMO?  What's that? When my daughter's brain inflammation was first discovered, the doctor's told us it could be ADEM or MS.  ADEM is when a patient's immune system attacks their brain and/or spinal cord. It is usually an intense but one time attack.  The doctors were hopeful that her case was ADEM, and she could be treated and go on to have a totally normal life.  They warned us that if her immune system continued to attack her body, that instead we would be talking about a possible diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).   My daughter's immune system didn't give up. It kept attacking.  We explained to her that her immune system was like the super hero of her body.  The super hero was there to save the day and attack germs, but for some reason her immune system was on over drive.  That meant her super hero was confused and working too hard.  Instead of attacking germs, it was attacking her brain.  Not cool! As her sympt...