My niece reminded me the other day that I had not posted on my son's medical adventures. She did this in an unexpected way, not in a straight forward "Aunt Michelle you need to post about my cousin." Instead she ran down the steps and dramatically announced that my son was "laying on the floor of [my] room and he looks sick." I panicked and ran upstairs to find him laying on the floor of my room holding his leg because he had bumped it in that spot on your knee cap that just hurts. A praise to God for that spot and praise God that was all that was wrong.
Since January Judah and I have walked around expecting something else.
Two summers ago our son awoke, the final morning of the youth mission trip, having a seizure. This was most upsetting to Judah because he saw it as they were in a boys room. I missed it and only saw the next 45 minutes of lethargy when we couldn't keep him awake or responsive. Not fun. We then drove the entire area of Mobile looking for the children's hospital. We found two other hospitals before locating the one we wanted. By that time our son was up and conversing and looking like nothing was wrong. They did some blood work, declared it a febrile seizure since he was still 6 and he had a fever. Hopefully never to happen again.
And for 18 months it didn't.
This January at another youth trip Judah sat up in bed and declared that our son was having another seizure. In that split second I thought it odd that he could know that so quickly. Then I heard the teeth grinding and nasal secretions and since then I can hear it quite easily as well even from rooms away. It is not a sound easily forgotten. Having experienced the first one Judah was ahead of me on that day. He was indeed having another seizure. Lasted 1-2 minutes and then again 45 minutes of lethargy and crying (for those who have seen neuro patients cry you will know the sound/look - for others you will not, a neuro cry is not a cry of pain as you normally see/hear it) We very handily had a physician on that trip with us and he (and his family) very graciously allowed us to wake them up at the early hour of eight (early for a youth ski trip) Soon enough our son came around - the group prayed for us and we began the travel home, because we were six hours from a decent hospital and one just never knows... After he became himself again our son was pissed that we left and he didn't get another day of skiing.
We called our pediatrician when we returned, got a routine office visit and an appointment for an EEG. I am going to pick up the pace... Very little sleep on EEG night, which thrilled our son because he and I were playing Wii at 11:30 and that was very cool. Having to sleep at the EEG was not his thing but cuddled next to mom it went ok. That afternoon we made him take a nap (which he protested because he had already slept once that day and he doesn't TAKE NAPS anymore) Against his will he did anyway because we had to travel the next day (or so we thought) but that is another post.
Normal EEG. Got an appointment with a neuro doc just for kicks. Mom and dad feel better. Then a few weeks later dad is at his early morning men's prayer/bible study and I heard the teeth and the secretions and was out of bed and across the hall to find my son on the floor. No fun to watch. My heart goes out to those parents who have witnessed more than I. This seizure got us a moved up neurologist appointment and an MRI. The neuro doc reported that he had benign Rollandic seizures. They happen only at night and rarely develop into the full blown ones that we have seen. Most are confined to his face. With this information the amazing amount of drool marks on his pillow/sheets over the past couple of years makes heaps more sense...
Normal MRI. Much to Judah's frustration there is nothing that we know that triggers the seizures. We can not ensure avoidance through proper eating or sleeping or illness, etc. That has not stopped our paranoia when he runs a fever or gets over tired. It has also found us getting up to check on him in the night when we hear strange things. An interesting note now that summer has arrived. There is a poster in my son's room that scrapes the wall with an amazing resemblance to teeth grinding when the ceiling fan is on. There is now a chair holding that poster to the wall due to its interrupting my sleep and scaring the __ out of me.
Thusly when my niece came and told me he was on the floor looking sick, despite the knowledge that his seizures are at night I still ran up the stairs.
Sometimes moms and dads (and grandparents and aunts/uncles) think with their heart first and not their brain. We have been seizure free since February and look forward to growing out of them in the preteen - early teen years. Then we can lose sleep worrying about something else.
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