And We're Back.....

And we're back! I could be extremely frustrated about all of this, or very grateful that I had last weekend without any hospital runs. I choose the latter.

Towards the beginning of the week, David had a seizure. It was one of his regular mini ones and honestly it came and went without much thought on my part. I mean, I watched for several hours to see if there would be anymore to follow, but I pretty much chalked the seizure up to a break through while we were trying to get his meds re-regulated.

I saw no more seizures until Thursday. Mid afternoon he threw another one. Again, it was a mini seizure lasting no more than 30-40 seconds and as usual, I watched to see if there would be anymore. There wasn't.....until about 5 p.m. yesterday. It made me a little uneasy that he had two seizures in two days, but I still wasn't terribly concerned. Then about an hour later he had another one. I could see a pattern starting so I had the service page Dr. S (Davids neurologist). When I told him what was going on he told me to up one of his meds for the weekend and then to call on Monday to make an appointment to see him in the office. About an hour or so later, David had another seizure. This time when I placed his magnet over his VNS (vagus nerve stimulator) to stop the seizure, David began to cough. He coughed so hard that it made him throw up. Yep, we were on a roll. At that time it was time for his nightly meds so I gave them to him with the upped dosage. By now we were all tired and both David and I were settling down for the night. I had turned the lights off and left the Spongebob lamp lit so that if I heard David I could immediately see his face. Low and behold about and hour into relaxing and almost falling asleep, I heard the familiar sounds that come with a David seizure. Again I jumped up and grabbed the magnet. It stopped it immediately, but once again the coughing to the point of throwing up started. I was really afraid that being so out of it and throwing up, that he might aspirate and we all know that no one wants to go down that road with David again.

When I got David back under control, I knew it was time to chat with Dr. S again. When he called me back I told him what our evening had been like and he asked all the usual questions: Has David been sick? Is David running a temperature? And has David been overly tired or dehydrated? The answer was "NO" to all of them. He then said, that we needed to get to the bottom of this and told me to get EMS to bring him to the ER! By the time we got to the ER, Dr. S had already called ahead telling them to expect David. On the way to the ER....he had another seizure. Within seconds of our arrival, the ER doc was in our room and telling us the course of action. First lab work and then David would be admitted. Along with blood work they also checked for MRSA and RSV. Oh...and David had yet another seizure. I could already tell it was going to be another long night.

David was finally admitted around 1 a.m. to the PICU. I have no idea why they chose to put him in the PICU instead of the regular floor and this time we weren't so fortunate as to get an actual room. This time we are just one of the many on the ward curtained off from each other. There are some really sick kids up here and now David is thrown in amongst them. So much for my "Mom" decision to keep David isolated. You can almost see the germs running a muck! Sadly too, we are getting just as many frequent flyer miles in the PICU now a days as we are on the regular pediatric floor. At least that means we have familiar nurses and doctors.

It is now about 3 a.m. and here is what we know so far: several of Davids regular seizure med levels are low in his body which means Dr. S will have to reassess David and change his meds around. Sigh! His VNS is likely turned up too high and that is why he had the major coughing and throwing up, so the VNS will have to be turned down. They are currently giving him a bolus (large dose by IV) of  a stabilizing seizure med. Tomorrow he will be given a maintenance dose and with any luck, this and a change in his meds should have us back on the right track. Fingers crossed. 

So in the midst of all of this, I decided if we had to be here that I was going to make this place work for their pay and so I asked if they could have the ortho docs come look at Davids cast/splint and maybe change the dressing on it. I also want the wound team to come look at that back of his leg where the splint seems to have rubbed a bit. After all if I have 2 more weeks before they take him in to put the actual cast on his leg, I might as well get some maintenance on the smelly bandages now!

The weather is currently threatening to turn bad with both ice and snow. I was hoping to be home and comfortable if the weather truly did get bad. Instead though....I am watching Davids monitor as his IV continues. I do this for my own peace of mind just to make sure there are no drops in heart rate or blood pressure while the medicine goes in. I find myself wishing that I didn't know so well what each of those monitor numbers means, what range they should be in and when they get out of range.....when I should start to worry. Yes, I would much rather have us home in our beds awaiting the storm.