Teachers Saw Her Making Weird Movements in Kindergarten, But What They Revealed Will Change Her Life

Teachers saw her making weird movements in kindergarten, but what they revealed will change her life forever. Ange Little, a mom from Pennsylvania, thought that putting her five-year-old daughter Maddie to kindergarten will be just as same for everybody else. She was thrilled her daughter finally grew enough to start learning and making new friends, but news that she could never have predicted was on the way. However, Ange wondered if her daughter would go along with her peers. It was finally the right time for Maddie to start going to the kindergarten. Like most five-year-olds, she was looking forward to meeting and playing with her new friends. Ange kept sending Maddie to school and was happy to see that her daughter liked spending time with her peers. However, Ange will soon find out the news that will change her and Maddie's life forever. After a few weeks into the school year, it seemed just like any other day for Ange. But something happened in kindergarten that Maddie's teacher had to share with her. Ange received a call from a teacher that revealed her something that she couldn't have seen coming. The teachers from the kindergarten said her daughter was behaving strangely. Supposedly, while at her after-school program, the kids were watching a movie and the teachers noticed Maddie was making weird movements. She tilted her head back and her arms were moving back and forth. As soon as Maddie's mom heard about this, she called the doctor. The doctor told them to bring her in right away as Maddie might have had a seizure. But this wasn't it. Something else was about to be discovered. Ange scheduled immediately an appointment with a neurologist. She wanted to know what happened to her daughter. They immediately had a test to determine what caused Maddie's seizure. The doctors had her blow on a pinwheel to try and trigger some. The test worked, and after an MRI diagnosed Maddie with absence and petit mal seizures, it was more than scary for Ange to hear, but at least they knew what was wrong. All she could think of was how to help her daughter. The doctors told her that Maddie might experience seizures in the future as well, but that they wouldn't last longer than a few seconds. Right after the test, Maddie was given medication to fight the seizures. Ange believed strongly that this would solve the problem, but soon it will show that it wouldn't be enough. But they will also discover something that will kick them off the right track once again. Even though they gave Maddie the medication that should have helped her, she kept on having seizures. These seizures now lasted longer than the doctors forecast. The diagnosis that the doctors first gave her was wrong. Ange was desperate for the right treatment for her daughter. Maddie's neurologist tried giving her different meds but nothing helped to stop the seizures. Unfortunately, they only got worse. Maddie was given about four different seizure medications in a short period of time. Not only did they not work for her, but some of them brought a lot of side effects. It turned out that little Maddie was even allergic to one of the medications. The doctor did a follow-up on EEGs that revealed that she had normal activity, but something was still strange about Maddie's case. Ange, like any other mother, scared for the health of her child, did everything in her power to find the right doctors and the correct medication for her daughter. They went to Hershey Medical Center to the Pediatric Neurology Department, but it turned out they couldn't help them. Ange continued looking for new ways to help her daughter. After realizing that they couldn't find a solution in Hershey, they were referred to CHOP in Pittsburgh. At this time Maddie was having up to 15 episodes of seizures a day. These strange spells overtook her body and would make her basically paralyzed leaving Maddie unable to move or talk. Sometimes during the seizures she would have involuntary movement of her arms and legs, but this wasn't all that was making her mother preoccupied. Not only did this brave kid have exhausting seizures but she remembered everything while having them. The fact that Maddie was aware of everything going on around her broke her mother's heart. Ange couldn't understand how her daughter had only a few seizures a day while being in kindergarten and now that she grew older her seizures became more intense and frequent. When a child's health is at risk nothing else really matters, so Maddie's parents decided to pull her out of school in order to find out what was the cause of the state of their child was going through. They did a video monitoring at Hershey, but they couldn't catch anything. When they came back six months later to do a follow-up, Ange had a video of one of the episodes Maddie had. What the doctor will tell her next will leave Ange speechless. After taking a look at the video the doctor told Ange that Maddie was making all of this up and that's all in her head. He suggested to take her to a psychiatrist instead. Being frustrated by the doctor's answer Ange made it very clear that she was not leaving the hospital until she finds out what's wrong with her daughter. Only the movement specialist could have helped them, but it was really unlikely to find him in the hospital that day because he was only there for one day a month, but they were lucky this time. It seemed like an eternity while Maddie and Ange were waiting for the doctors to tell them if Maddie will get to see the movement specialist. Finally they came back to them and told them the specialist they were looking for was at the hospital. Of all days he was there the day they desperately needed him. The movement specialist came in and introduced himself as Dr. Kaufman. He had Maddie do a couple of tests in order to discover what was happening to her, but after he watched the video Ange brought it took him just a few seconds to reveal to the scared parents what was wrong with Maddie. Maddie was initially given a wrong diagnosis and finally her new doctor that her mom called their very own Dr. House helped them find the cause of Maddie's seizures. He diagnosed Maddie with paroxysmal non-kinesogenic dyskinesia or PNKD, but apart from finally knowing what their daughter was suffering from they found something else out. On a follow-up appointment their doctor explained that some kids might stop having these seizures around puberty, but that with others it can get even worse. He told them that there's no cure for this condition and that there's nothing that could make it better. Dr. Kaufman said that Maddie could have an episode one a day and then not have another for 20 years. Her case was really unpredictable and that's what made her parents even more anxious. The good thing was that the longest seizure Maddie had lasted only a few hours when these episodes can last for entire days. The frequent seizures made Maddie's life quite difficult. Even if the episodes lasted for a minute or two during her elementary school her life was consistently being disrupted. Ange obviously couldn't relax. She reacted like every frightened mother would. Every time my phone rang my stomach dropped wondering if it was the school calling to let me know she was having an episode or that I needed to come pick her up because it had been more than 15 minutes. Eventually Maddie's episodes became longer but were happening only once or twice a day. Dr. Kaufman told Maddie that this was probably happening because the channels that connect her brain cells didn't always work properly. This was the reason why her body paralyzed in the episodes. Maddie and her mom went through a lot of suffering situations only to experience something they never believed could happen. At the end of Maddie's seventh grade year Maddie made it through her entire seventh grade year without a single episode of seizure. Ange thought that this day might never come. It turned out that puberty might have solved their problem. Ange was crying out of happiness and stated that aside from the birth of her children she was never happier in her entire life. Today Maddie can go to follow-up appointments every few years instead of several times a year. They will have to monitor everything is fine when she gets older. But all in all Maddie is now a happy 13 year old who never gives up and can make anyone laugh. Ange said that her daughter now plays roller hockey and is going to the ice rink. Maddie is also an amazing singer but she doesn't like doing it in front of people. She doesn't let anything bring her down and with her smile she could light the darkest of skies. Her mom calls Maddie her hero for a good reason.