Saturday, December 4, 2010

In Which Connor Has The Lowest Fever Ever And His Brain Cells Go Nuts

So after Connor's third seizure today I took his temperature.  It read 99.0, which to anyone other than Connor's brain cells isn't even close to a fever.  Connor usually runs cool-- around 96 or so-- but that's still a really pathetic attempt at a raised temperature.

But not to Connor's brain.  I believe that Connor has a little cluster of "inciter" brain cells hanging out in his brain stem.  These are the 2012 believers of the neuron world.  When Connor's temperature goes up a whole three points, all of the rational brain cells are going about their normal business.  "Well, it could be the start of a fever," they say, "but he could also be exercising or something."

The radical cells in his brain, though, take the temperature change to be The End Of Life As We Know It.  "This is IT," they scream, "we're DOOMED," and begin frantically running around waving their dendrites in an alarming fashion and firing randomly into the air.  All this screaming and weaponry and whatnot makes all the other brain cells freak out, and then there's a riot and general havoc ensues until the seizure medication manages to shoulder its way in and convince everybody to chill out.  You would think the other brain cells would have figured things out by now and learned to ignore them, but apparently the other brain cells are really gullible because they fall for it every time.

Anyway, so Connor, with his measly 99.0 temperature, had four seizures today before the Tylenol really kicked in and his brain stopped going berserk.  Needless to say we did not go to the parade or the zoo lights.  Instead we stayed at home and one or the other of us hovered over our child while he acted, in between seizures and seizure-induced naps, like a kid who is just starting to think about maybe being sick.  I spent a lot of time doing needlework, as I can't hover and do housework at the same time.  It was a largely unproductive day.

We'll see how he's doing tomorrow; hopefully this will be a bug that's over quickly and we won't end up in the hospital again like the last time Connor was sick.  Keep your fingers crossed that the Tylenol will keep those doomsday brain cells in check!

~Jess

5 comments:

gloria said...

I hate that this is still going on. Call when you have an opportunity. We need to catch up. (Funniest illustration ever! )

leah said...

I hope this bug (and its associated "little" fever) disappear soon and Connor's brain cells can stop running amok- Get well soon, Connor!

Julia O'C said...

Fingers crossed. And I HATE it when you make me laugh when you're describing something horrible like seizures. But "frantically running around waving their dendrites in an alarming fashion and firing randomly into the air" made me laugh so hard I *honked* and scared my dog.

Anyway, needlework. I didn't know you did this. We must discuss. Fingers crossed that the seizure-siege is over.

Julia said...

So sorry to hear it, as always. I guess the silver lining is that if he is indeed sick (if only marginally), then the uptick in seizures can be blamed on that rather than being the new status quo (despite all the medicine juggling). Well, I hope he gets over it quickly.

Perhaps you can introduce some sort of neuralogical yoga. If the neurons become too agitated, they get themselves into some sort of synaptic lotus position and start repeating their mantras until the agitation subsides.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Ohmygosh...

Is it bad that I'm laughing at your description (waving their dendrites in an alarming fashion)?! My sympathies and prayers are with Connor though... four in one day! Not fair!

Honestly though, Jess, you should write for a medical journal. You know, make all that medical mumbo-jumbo accessible to the masses! (You know, in all your free time... *sigh*).

Julie

 
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