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Thursday, August 31, 2006

A scary Monday

Monday 8/28 was to have been Krissy's Kindy orientation. I dropped Bub off at my mom's and took Krissy to orientation. We pulled into the parking lot and my cell phone rang. It was my mom. She was calling to tell me that Bub had just thrown up and was not responding when she called his name. She'd picked him up and his eyes were both facing to the right. She thought he was having a seizure.

We ran into the school to get the paperwork we needed and by the time I got back out to the car, my mom called again and said that my sister (a veternarian) was there. Kristin (my sister) has experience with seizures in dogs and she knew that Bub was having a seizure and she said it was getting worse. They had called 911 and an ambulance was on its way. By the time we got back to my mom's (10 minutes from the school), the ambulance was there.

He had a grand mal seizure in the house before the ambulance got there and I believe he had another in the ambulance. I got to my mom's to find him shaking, his eyes were just staring off to the side. They were putting in an IV and he was already on oxygen. I'd never seen him like that before and because he'd vomited first, I was convinced it was a shunt problem. We left in the ambulance and I said I wanted him to got to Children's. They said he wasn't stable enough to do that and they were taking him to the local ER. Part way there, the said that he'd stabilized and that they were going to Children's. So we started towards there. We got about 1/2 way there and he started with the focal seizures (the staring ones) again and they were concerned that he'd again go into the shaking ones and then to a grand mal, so they stopped at a different hospital to try to get him stabilized again. We got there and the shaking started again.

I was alone and petrified. They gave him a different medication to try to slow the seizures down. Thankfully about that time, my Daddy got there and my sisters were only about 5 minutes behind him. After about ten minutes, my DH finally arrived. The doctor didn't want to wait any longer to get to Children's so the hospital was sending a nurse along with us in the ambulance. They gave him more medicine and once the shaking stopped, they loaded him back into the ambulance for our trip to Children's.

I got to ride in the back with him that time and by the time I got into the ambulance, she seizures had stopped and he was sleeping fitfully. I got to hold his hand and although he wasn't opening his eyes at all, I could feel him calm when I talked to him. We finally got to Childrens. My dad, two of my sisters, and DH were right behind the ambulance. They could tell that his brain was still too active, so they gave him a different medication to calm his brain down. They took him off the oxygen and his pulse ox level was still at 99%, so that was some good news.

They drew some blood and then Bub fell asleep for a while. After about an hour, they came to say they were taking him for CT scan. I asked if I had time to cath him before they took him (since he doesn't pee) and they said I did. He woke up while I was cathing him then DH walked in. He took one look at DH and said "DA-DA"! I was so happy! He was talking again!.

So they did the CT scan and then they did an X-ray of the shunt, as they were also concerned that it was a shunt problem. They had sent the blood to test the levels of his anti-seizure medication. Finally after about three hours of waiting the Dr. came in and told us that there was no shunt problem and they had finally got his Tegretol (anti-seizure med) levels back and they were only 5. The therapeutic range is 8-12, so he was well below the therapeutic range. After writing us some scripts for new medicine to increase his dose, they sent us home!

I can't remember ever being so scared and then relieved and then happy all in the same day! By the time we left Children's yesterday he was completely back to normal and to look at him, you wouldn't have known what his morning was like.

My sister Kristin had taken Krissy back out to Orientation so she didn't have to miss much of it and then she brought Krissy to my mom's and then she came to Children's. DH's step-dad and mom were there, too.

After all that , I feel so blessed. So blessed that my son is alive and home! So blessed that my sister knew what to look for and that my mom didn't hesitate to call the ambulance when it was necessary. Blessed that we had so much family at Children's to support us and yet my mom was willing to stay home for Krissy Faye. And so blessed that for once, the best case scenario came true for us.

It's now Thursday and he's doing great. He's had no other seizures and is is typical happy self!

1 comments:

kramer_buffy said...

mary, what a scary day you all had, so relieved he is doing ok and that he is even going to school... wooohoooo Bub!

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