In Which Connor Has A Seizure

Connor had his first seizure in almost two weeks today. 

The day started off just fine; the mobile petting zoo visited Connor's school today so he got to spend some time with farm animals, which was pretty neat!  The little guy's an old hand at that sort of thing since the horse barn he goes to also runs a petting zoo, but I'm sure he still enjoyed himself.  At some point during the course of the day he must have come into contact with someone who used lavender-infused lotion (or laundry detergent, or shampoo, soap-- the list goes on) because he when I went in to get him up from his nap he had some truly spectacular hives on the right side of his face and in patches down his right arm.  Whatever the source, the hives were pretty much gone by evening so it wasn't anything serious.

As an aside, though, what the heck is up with the walking-into-Connor's-room-to-discover-weird-medical-stuff schtick going on lately?  I'm starting to get paranoid every time I open his door.

Anyway, so when he woke up from his nap he was kind of ornery, but I didn't think anything of it because he was covered in hives and also teething (can you use that expression for a five year old?), and then the day kind of went downhill from there.  We went to occupational therapy and he was extremely uncooperative; all he wanted to do was chew on the vibrating toys.  After we got home his mood continued to sour.  In retrospect, I think he was feeling the seizure coming on.

I finally clued in to the fact that he was really feeling punky about ten minutes before his seizure when he kept insisting he was tired and asking to be held more and more frantically.  I put down what I was doing, picked him up, moved his oxygen condenser close (just in case) and sat down in one of our library chairs with him.  He closed his eyes and buried his head against me.  I sang him a song and rocked him a little bit until the seizure started and it was time to lay him down, start our timer and turn on the oxygen. 

I kept singing.  Sometimes he can hear me, and it seems to help him stay calm.

This one ended up being about nine minutes long, and I used the Diastat at five.  It was the still-conscious-but-jerking kind, and when he finished seizing his right side was paralyzed, which was a new twist.  Normally it's his left side that's affected.  I put him to bed and he's been asleep ever since.

So on the plus side, Connor may be starting to recognize when he's going to have a seizure.  On the down side, well, he had a seizure.  And also I didn't clue in to what he was trying to tell me until right before it happened. 

I'm hoping that I won't have any more chances to practice my skills in that area for a while, though.  Let's make it at least another two weeks, shall we?

~Jess