We had a busy and sort of insane day today!
Connor and I got up a little early and headed into post for my doctor's appointment. I needed a letter for our adoption (though we still haven't chosen a child yet, we're continuing to gather our dossier paperwork) from a doctor stating that I have a normal life expectancy and am in good enough physical health to adopt. The letter has to be notarized, so we made plans to make that happen tomorrow.
After my appointment I drove over with Connor to the on-post skating arena, where I unloaded my gear and headed inside with the little guy for some stroller skating! Every Wednesday from 9:00-11:00 they have their Tot and Stroller Skating Time, and I figured that while skating while holding on to something probably wasn't going to help my form any, the more time I have on skates no matter the circumstances, the better! I got there right as it opened and sat down to change my outside wheels out for my inside ones and discovered I'd left my skate key at home. So I asked the woman behind the counter if I could borrow or rent one. To my astonishment, she told me that they didn't have any available.
What kind of a skating rink doesn't have any skate keys?
So I had to run over to a store and buy a socket wrench so I could skate! Oh well. We still got in a good forty five minutes of skating, and Connor and I both had a pretty good time!
We had to stop skating about about 10:00 because Connor had a doctor's appointment at 11:00 and I wanted to get cleaned up before then. About 10:20 I loaded Connor into the car and headed out with the intention of finding something to eat. As I did so I noticed that Connor was staring intensely at his feet, which is not all that unusual-- he likes to watch the sidewalk go by underneath his wheelchair. However, five minutes down the road I noticed that while he was still moving his head up and down, signing and seemed in a good mood, his eyes were still fixed downward in the exact same position. Then he started getting upset.
Then he started throwing up. A lot. His face turned pale as a sheet and his skin was cold and clammy. He was still conscious and moving his arms and legs with purpose, but his eyes continued to be fixed straight down.
That's when I started freaking out a little bit. Connor's at risk for a ton of things in addition to seizures. Things like hydrocephalus and strokes, among other potentially deadly medical conditions. I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but I didn't like it at all. So I decided that instead of driving to the hospital and finding something to eat before Connor's appointment I'd just drive straight to the ER. I called Jeremy on the way and let him know what was going on. He said he'd meet me at the hospital.
I hit just about every red light on my way over, so it took me a while to get to the hospital. As I pulled into the ER parking lot, all of the sudden Connor's eyes started tracking again, and he stopped throwing up and started crying. His left side was a little weak, and he was extremely sleepy. That's a classic post-seizure response from him.
Since he wasn't in respiratory stress or displaying any really distressing symptoms anymore, and since his doctor's appointment was supposed to be in fifteen minutes anyway, we decided to take him to that instead. The doctor agreed with our thought that more than likely this was a new and funky kind of seizure for him. If it had been something like hydrocephalus, the symptoms wouldn't have stopped after ten minutes. I didn't give him Diastat this time because I didn't think it was a seizure, so that wasn't so hot because it went on a pretty long time, but at least I'll know what to do next time.
Forty minutes later (after a good nap) he was perfectly fine.
So that was our fun and excitement for the day; it was not something I'd particularly care to repeat. We'll be calling the neurologist to let him know that Connor has had two really long seizures in the past three days. We gave the little guy another dose of Ativan this evening to hopefully stave off any more.
So a busy, crazy day!
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3 years ago
3 comments:
These new seizures are so different from the ones he's had before- hopefully this was a "one-off" and you won't see it again. Dearest Connor, please keep things boring for your mom!
Remember, in the old days, when kids would wear skate keys on a necklace? I suddenly feel very, very old. Maybe you could get a charm bracelet and put your key on it (depending on how big it is)!
I wonder if the new, long, varied seizures are related to his medication transition -- isn't he still amping up to the full dosage of the new thing? Hopefully this is all transient and things will get back onto a seizure-free even keel once the new meds are full dose.
"I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key. Maybe we should get together and try them on you see." That was a shocking lyric back in the day.
Man, I hate when Emily has new seizures that we haven't seen before. Like you said, you don't know to give Diastat if you don't know it's a seizure yet. I hope that this was a one time thing, and not something new Connor is starting.
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