Tiara's Story

Tiara was born a normal healthy child. She was a happy baby. She had chronic ear infections including 6 sets of tubes before age 6. She was very friendly and such a people lover. She loved preschool and then kindergarten. Besides ear infections she was healthy and normal.

In December of 2002 she started dropping weight like crazy but I just thought she was going through a growing time. January she was drinking water like no tomorrow and going potty all the time and started changing from a sweet little angel to something with attitude.

January 21st, 2003, I took Tiara to the doctor thinking she had a urine infection and after the blood work came back we were whisked away to the hospital for a 7 day stay after being diagnosed with Diabetes. She was borderline comatose when we entered the hospital. She was in ICU for 2 days until they finally got her blood sugars under some kind of control. Tiara took charge after that with her Diabetes. She checks her own blood at least 5 times daily and does her own shots, at least 5 a day. To this day we still have not been able to get the diabetes totally under control. She is a very high runner.

Summer of 2004 she woke one morning and the left side of her was temporarily paralyzed so off to the hospital and 2 days later she was diagnosed with Todd's Paralysis. There is no cure or even medication for this and it can happen at a moment's notice. She may not ever recover from it. This is the scariest diagnosis to me.

August 2004, Tiara started having seizures with normal to high blood sugar levels, which means they were not low blood sugar level ones and so when she had her first Grand Mal seizure we were whisked again to the hospital and after 1 semi reg EEG and 1 normal EEG she was diagnosed with Epilepsy. She has been on 5 medications so far and not one has seemed to do the trick. She is currently on Topamax.

Tiara went from a happy girl with lots of friends to a very shy quiet no friends girl. She does a lot of things in the home for fear of seizures. She struggles everyday because she just wants to be normal. She does well in school. For the past 2 winters she has spent a lot of days in the hospital for flu or colds or seizures but we have been very blessed that she has not been to one yet this winter.

Tiara is so brave and strong and I only wish I had half her braveness. She is a very sweet girl and she has been through so much in the past 2 years.

Sites that Tiara's been featured on.

MAKE A CHILD SMILE

HUGS&HOPE

TUMBLEWEED FOUNDATION

SMILES&HUGS

BRIDGE OF DREAMS

SHARE THE LOVE

LOVE QUILTS

Helpful Sites

GIVE KIDS THE WORLD

THE MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION

THE STARLIGHT FOUNDATION

ANY HAPPY MAIL FOR TIARA & RAYLEE CAN BE SENT TO PO BOX 2071 BREMERTON,WA.98310