If there is ever a time I wish it would all go away it’s when I’m in the back of an ambulance accompanying my son to the hospital. A trip made on more than one occasion.
When you’re comfortable in a hospital you have spent too much time in a hospital.
I joke that I need an overnight bag with me at all times. Twice now we have ended up at Nationwide for and extended stay with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Plenty of offers from friends to provide the necessities but never a desire to be a bother.
Anyway, back to Braxton’s trip down south.
A couple weeks ago Braxton had an early morning seizure. It was a very long ten minutes. The Versed didn’t kick in right away.
We didn’t call the ambulance right away. We are used to seizures so I thought it was going to be his usual process of seizure followed by a few hours of sleep.
I texted my boss to let her know I wasn’t going to be in and called neurology to let them know about his seizure. Last visit they asked for a video so I had a video ready to send.
He hadn’t been breathing right since the seizure. I let the nurse know. I also mentioned that he was pale and I believed he was still having small seizures. She advised I should take him to the ER to have him checked out.
By that time Allen was at work and I was on my own with him. I gave my mom a call to see if she could tag along and got Braxton ready to go while I waited for her to hear back from her boss. I hadn’t heard back by the time we were ready to go so I drove on over to her house.
I pulled up and Braxton started yelling. A sound I had never heard before. I jumped out of the car and opened his door so that I could see him. His face was red and looked so scared.
At that moment I knew I needed to call for help. I dialed 911 and let them know I needed an ambulance. They arrived, got us set, and off we went.
I called my husband on the way and let him know how the morning went after he left for work. His first thought was to ask if he should stop at home for some things. I told him we would be fine. I would later regret that.
When arriving at the ER a town over I had to explain Braxton to the nurses and doctor. Of course nobody knew a thing about him. The doctor immediately decided he needed to be transported to Nationwide.
Off we went! Another very painful scary ride.
We arrived at Nationwide and were taken into a general exam room. The nurse looked him over and took his vitals. He still wasn’t breathing well so he was given oxygen just as he received it in Galion.
When the nurse walked out things started to get scary. He had stopped breathing. It was brief but very concerning.
My husband grabbed a nurse. When they walked into the room he stopped breathing yet again. Because of that we were moved to the intensive care side of the er where he could be closely monitored.
His heard rate and oxygen levels were very low and nobody seemed to know why.
For the next few hours we watched as he continued to have seizures. When I was finally able to catch the “event” on video things started moving with getting us admitted.
We were taken to the neurology floor at 11:00 pm. They felt he was stable enough.
They ran tests all night long. From an MRI to a spinal tap to being poked in every spot possible to draw blood. Checking for any and all infections and viruses.
He was started on a broad spectrum antibiotic to fight anything rather than waiting for the results to come back.
He was hooked up to the EEG at four in the morning after starting the process at two. As soon as it was turned on they caught two seizures. All night long they continued. 10-15 every hour.
They started him on phenobarbital which caused more problems. That morning they decided to sent him to the PICU until he stabilized.
He would sleep for the next three days. Between the medications and seizures his body could not function.
Sunday afternoon we finally started to see our Braxton start to shine through.
He was seizure free for 24 hours so the leads were removed and we were sent back up to neurology.
He was started on yet another new medicatIon.
Monday morning we were told we would be going home once they were sure he could keep his food down. They wer still unsure as to what had cause his extreme episode but were medicating him enough to ensure he would be ok at home.
This was one of the scariest events he has ever had.
For over a week he didn’t smile or laugh. For over two weeks he didn’t use his arms or play with his hands.
I didn’t know if my boy was gone or if he would ever come back from so many seizures.
Never take for granted the little things. Every new day is a miracle.
