All,
Well, yesterday sucked. Taylor had a seizure around 7:30am. Luckily she
was laying in my bed, in my arms when it happened. Addie was in her crib.
Scared the crap out of me. It lasted about 10-15 seconds, then afterwards
she was out of it and basically catatonic. I waited until the main part
of
the seizure was over, then ran downstairs to grab a phone to call 911.
While talking to them, I raced back upstairs to make sure she was
breathing
(she was). By the time the paramedics arrived (2 ambulances and a fire
truck, 10 people total), she was in a deep sleep. They tried to wake her
up
and poked and prodded her, and she was really out of it -- didn't seem to
notice or mind that there were 10 strangers crowded around her, taking her
clothes off, putting nodes on her to monitor her heartbeat, etc, which is
really out of the ordinary.
They took her to the local hospital ER while Addie and I followed behind.
I
called Rob who was at work and over an hour (ended up being almost 2 hours
away), and then called my dad & step mom (Dottie) who drove down (1.5 hour
drive). Meanwhile, I sat in the ER with Addie on one hip, cradling Taylor
as best I could on the other side, and all of us crowded on to the
hospital
bed/gurney. It was really hard. Taylor finally started to come around,
then was really upset and didn't want anyone to touch her. Of course,
they
needed to poke and prod her, put in an IV, take rectal temps, look into
her
ears, blood pressure cuff, listen to her heart, etc, and she was screaming
and yelling the whole time.
Then around 9am she had another seizure, and of course, there was no one
around at all, and it seemed like no one came forever. Once they got
there,
they hooked her up to various machines, they gave her oxygen and some
Ativan
which put her out, they did a urine catheter, they did a CAT scan, etc.
My
dad and Dottie finally arrived and took Addie, and Rob arrived a bit
later.
Around 12ish they were talking about moving her to a different hospital,
as
this one didn't really do pediatrics, so we were loading her up onto the
gurney into her carseat, and she had another seizure. The paramedics
stood
there with their thumbs up their noses, so I whipped her out of her
carseat
and got her back onto the bed, and then finally a nurse came over to give
her oxygen and another dose of Ativan, and again, she was knocked out for
a
long time. They then decided to transfer her over to Children's Hospital
in
Oakland, but it took until 3pm until we were in the ambulance and on the
road. Once we got to Children's, she perked up a tiny bit, but was still
incredibly weak, lethargic, and basically drugged. They gave her a dose
of
Depakote and told us we could take her home around 7pm. They gave us a
prescription for maintenance Depakote, and told us to follow up with our
pediatrician, as well as contact the neurologist for an appointment. We
were home by 8. My dad and step-mom spent the night, just in case
anything
else happened.
She slept at the foot of our bed, and both dh and I expected to see much
improvement today, but when she first woke up this morning she was still
so
weak and lethargic. She talks, but her words are slurred and she still
feels terrible and gets really upset and cries at almost anything. She
couldn't stand up by herself or walk. She threw up the first thing she
drank this morning as well. We called her pediatrician to have her seen
and
based on what we told them, they said we should take her back to
Children's.
My D&D had already left, so I called them back and asked him to take Addie
for a day or 3, depending on how things went. By the time that they came
back and we got all of Addie's stuff together, Taylor had actually crawled
across the floor on her own to get more Gatorade, then a few minutes
later,
walked very slowly and crookedly to the office to tell Dada something.
So,
we called the ped back and asked to go there first, and perhaps skip the
hospital all together.
The pediatrician was great. It wasn't our regular guy, but one of his
officemates. She was really good, and thorough, and checked a few other
possibilities, including having us send a stool sample for Salmonella and
something else, both of which can cause diarrhea and seizures. It's
probably not that, but it feels good to have it checked. She also told us
that based on everything that Taylor has been through, plus all the drugs,
she's doing just as she would expect. So, she's having us come back on
Friday to check her progress, as well as in a week to check the levels of
Depakote.
We stopped at Burger King on the way home, because Taylor has been
begging/
obsessing about eating chicken nuggets, even in the moments after throwing
up this morning. Since she'd gone on to eat some applesauce okay, as well
as two chicken nuggets at home without problems, we figured it was okay.
Wrong. She ate a few French fries on the way home in the car, and then
promptly threw up all over the floor in the family room. Although we just
had it cleaned yesterday while we were at the hospital (already been
scheduled, and since D&D were here with Addie, we figured we might as well
go ahead with it), we had laid out a blanket to have a picnic, and
luckily,
she threw up on the blanket. (phew!). Anyway, we gave her the next dose
of
Depokote, and put her to bed. She slept for a couple of hours, and is now
up, begging for more chicken nuggets, which I'm giving her in small
quantities. Which she just threw up again. Oy. Okay, no more solids for
her. Blech. It's hard, because she doesn't identify the solid food as
the
reason for throwing up, no matter what I tell her, and just keep begging
for
food. And since she is so sick and otherwise miserable, it's hard to not
give her something to make her feel better, but I know it will only make
her
throw up and feel worse.
Anyway, D&D are going to keep Addie overnight, and we'll see about getting
her back tomorrow. My Mom & Step-dad (Steve, so M&S) were going to come
up
Friday for a prescheduled weekend visit, but are now going to fly up
tomorrow afternoon instead, so that will be nice to have the extra help.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It's been a really scary
time.
--
Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys, 1/3/03 -- Who's got the Christmas spirit, singing all day
long, "You put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking
out the doooo-oooo-ooor!
Addison Grace, 9/30/04 -- My Little Ham, who smiles so big her eyes
disappear and she says, "Cheese" on command. Although it sounds more like
"eeeeeesssshhh"!
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