Little Peanut decided it was about time we took an ambulance ride with one of our kids, witnessed a seizure, and to stay in the hospital for something besides after being born (maybe he was just trying to get his time in since he didn't get that post-birth hospital stay).
Monday morning, I ran up to brush my teeth while the kids finished breakfast and heard Bean and Bug calling me, saying, "Peanut is doing something weird. Come down here!" I hate that I didn't come right away, but since they tend to overreact and always want me to come see everything he does, and didn't sound exceptionally upset or worried, I told them to hang on. It was when Bug yelled up, "He might be dead by the time you get here!" that I finally realized something might actually be going on, although I still had NO idea that it was anything too serious and actually told Bug to stop talking about everyone dying (it's a very common conversation lately for some reason.)
So when I walked into the kitchen and saw Peanut totally slumped in his high chair, and then saw the drool hanging from his mouth, I was pretty scared. It's awful seeing your child completely non-responsive (although he was breathing at that point) and not really knowing what to do.
Bean and Bug were both crying by then, but they ran in the playroom so I could hear while I called 911. The little bit they had told me and what I saw looked like a seizure and the paramedics confirmed it. I sent the older kids to the neighbor's house, called Daddy-o to meet us at the hospital and then took my first ambulance ride with Peanut. He'd come to when the paramedics got to the house and was pretty tired and cranky the whole ride to the hospital.
That first stay was just in the ER, lasted a couple hours, and involved some blood work and a CT scan, which all came back normal. They talked to us possible triggers for seizures, but Peanut hadn't been sick or had a fever. He isn't the best sleeper, so there is always the possibility of a sleep deprived seizure, but they didn't really know any specifics for us, but said that sometimes this happens and hopefully it was a one-time thing.
We were home by noon, fixed some lunch, and Peanut happily began eating. About 10 minutes into his meal, I saw his head roll back, his lips turned blue, and realized he was having another seizure. I had a lot harder time staying calm that second time because by then I was convinced that something was definitely not right with him. Another 911 call, sending the kids back, who were just skipping up the driveway with the neighbor right then, and another ambulance ride, to the children's hospital this time.
They told us they'd be admitting us this time around. Two seizures in one day is a bigger deal and they had a lot more tests to run. So we got settled into our room and tried to keep Peanut happy. He was pretty groggy after the second one and slept off and on the rest of the afternoon, but was very cranky in between times. They did an EEG just before dinner and we had some friends stop by and one of them helped Daddy-o give Peanut a blessing of health. His dinner came and once again, he was anxious to eat.
But it only took about 3 bites of veggies and I felt his head flop back in my arms and he had started his third seizure of the day. The third one was a little less scary just because we had nurses in the room within seconds, and I knew what to do this time and they had oxygen and medicines going so quickly that the whole thing didn't last as long, either. But at the same time, it's terrifying not knowing what is wrong and if this is just going to keep happening. I was pretty scared to feed him the next day because it seemed like every time he tried to eat, he had another seizure, which the doctors and nurses said is not something they've seen before.
That first night in the hospital was pretty awful. The Keppra and valium that they'd given Peanut supposedly would make him drowsy, not to mention having three seizures, which apprently can take a lot out of you. Everyone told us to expect him to be out for the night. But they didn't know our boy--he can overcome any amount of drowiness to pull an all nighter.
He was tired, and he was cranky, and annoyed that he was attached to so many different things, and all the wires and tubes kept getting tangled, and anytime he did fall asleep, his oxygen levels dropped just low enough to set the machine off and we'd have to keep readjusting the oxygen tube. And when he was awake and crying, we couldn't really take him anywhere past the side of the bed, so we were stuck trying to bounce him and calm him down as he screamed and threw his head back (which was its own bit of scariness--not sure I'll ever see him do that again and not have a moment of panic that another seizure is starting.)
Then, Tuesday, we had the fun task of keeping him hooked up to all those machines, while not being able to feed him anything because he was going for an MRI that afternoon and had to be sedated for that. He was a pretty big mess most of the day, although he did cheer up for a bit in the afternoon when Bug and Bean came to visit.
We made it through the afternoon, and he was so tired that by the time they gave him the anaesthesia, he was already almost asleep. That all went well, and they were able to also draw blood at the same time for some genetic and metabolic tests that we'd already discussed having done last week before all of this craziness.
The MRI preliminary results came back normal and he'd been fine for over 24 hours, so they let us detach the machines and feed him dinner that night. He was so happy to get some food and kept asking for more, even though they'd asked us to try to take it slow. He also had a much easier time going to sleep and actually stayed asleep for several hours. Daddy-o and I were amazed when we woke up around 3:15 and realized that other than waking up very briefly when the nurses came in twice to quietly check his vital signs, we'd been asleep for over 5 hours. I never thought I could sleep so well in a hospital. In fact, it had been awhile since we'd gotten that much consecutive sleep at home!
This morning, Peanut seemed much more like his normal self. He played with his toys for quite awhile, ate non-stop for about 3 hours, and when the final reading of the MRI came back clean, they told us we could go home! He has to take Keppra twice a day for the next 6 months to lower his risk of repeat seizures and they will be following up with us and tracking how he does on that medication, but from everything they can see, he looks healthy and we are really just hoping this was some freak incident where his seizure threshold was lowered by some combination of factors and will not be repeating itself again. As one of the nurses put it, they were glad to meet us but hope to never see us again.
We feel so incredibly lucky to have had such great care in the hospital. The nurses and doctors were great. They really take care of the whole family in children's hospitals. Peanut got to meet a couple of the Panther's players and cheerleader who brought gifts around to all the kids one morning and he brought home a beautiful crocheted blanket that someone had donated to the hospital and a Halloween costume and would have been able to go to their Halloween carnival if we'd been released a couple hours later.
We are also so grateful to all of our friends and family who have been so supportive and helpful the last few days. We've had friends and neighbors taking care of the other kids and dog and making phone calls and just stopping by to check on us and sending us messages to let us know that they are thinking and praying for us. It's amazing to be on the receiving end of so much love and service. It certainly lightens the load a little when things are so tough and we don't have to go through it alone.
He made it home in time to dress up for the big night!
