I’m not going to lie. I really debated staying in the hospital. Staying in the hospital was easier. It was nice to step back and let the nurses deal with her aggressive behavior. The hospital was a controlled setting. Very little stimulus, which meant, very little for Maddi to be agitated by. Maddi’s behavior up…

We’ve gotten lots of mixed responses when we ask: how long till she’s better? what’s the game plan? when do we look for? The sad part is, there is no answer. The doctors have no real data. They can give me estimates. The average person recovers from NMDA Encephalitis somewhere around 14 months. 14 months…. When I…

We loaded Maddi in the car, unsure of what was going to happen, but also preparing for an agitated little girl, who absolutely did not want to go to the hospital. We tried to make it as fun as possible, but how do you make a trip to the hospital fun? The whole way there…

I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I knew it was really early. I hadn’t slept yet. I was too afraid to roll over and check the time and wake Maddi, but I knew it had been hours. This was the first time she had slept more than an hour at a time, and…

After entering the Pediatric ER with a seizure, being dosed with Ativan, and then going into respiratory failure, Maddi was rushed to the PICU. Jason and I were just frantic. When we got to the floor, we were told to wait outside while they situated her, and a Doctor would come and look for us….

Maddi started a public VPK program in July 2015. At the beginning, she loved it! She enjoyed getting ready for school each morning. She’d run into her classroom and greet her teacher cheerfully! She loved learning, and absorbed everything that she was taught. In early October 2015, Maddi started to have problems in school. Her…

I got Maddi’s test results two Saturday’s ago. We had just been discharged from the hospital without answers. Well, discharged and told to get some parenting classes. None the less, no answers. I opened up the test result and noted that it was abnormal. NMDA Receptor AB Serum: results 1:5120. (normal 1:10) What in the…

Maddilyn was born on October 2nd, 2010 after a grueling 30 hours of labor. She was the quietest baby. They placed her on my chest, and she just looked up at me like she had known me forever. I remember both of us had a fever, so they took her away to be checked out, and…

Welcome! This is a personal blog to document the journey of our family, as we battle with my daughter Maddilyn (Maddi) to heal and live our life with Autoimmune Encephalitis. I’m Tricia; I’ve carried two babies, Maddilyn (5yo) and Jaxon (1 yo) and help parent Alex (12yo) and Ashlee (11yo), married to Jason for 6…