Home sweet home!!!

Wow! What a time we have had the past few days. Sunday Morning, I woke up as normal to the sounds of Abigail in her bedroom saying “uh oh” her new favorite word. Once she learns a word she uses it all the time! She can now say, Mama, Daddy, Dada, Hiiii, Bye, pup pup, bite bite, pop pop, and how could we forget the word we say at least 50 times daily…”uh oh”.

So she was in her crib saying uh oh, I went in there to get her, change her and then feed her. She drank about 4 ounces of her bottle, which isn’t like her. She normally drinks the full 8 oz; however she batted it away even after offering it several times. After eating we went back in the bedroom to get daddy awake so Abby could lay with him while I went and showered. When I finished getting ready I went to get Abby to let her play in the kitchen and to help me cook breakfast. She played in the floor with my measuring cups and I fried sausage and made pancakes. The 1st round of pancakes was done, and Abby seemed to be getting tired on the floor so I put her in her high chair.

 I put the 2nd batch of pancakes on and looked at Abby because she wasn’t playing with her toys, she looked just soooo tired! I leaned down to talk with her and that was when she started seizing. Her face turned blue in color, and she was shaking, her head had no control, dropped, and her eyes looked dazed. I immediately yelled for Jason and he got her out of her high chair while I called 911.

The paramedics were at the house within a few minutes. They checked her out and offered to transport her to the hospital; however we decided to do the transport so she wouldn’t be as scared. We called our pastor to start praying and he was able to get to our house shortly after the paramedics to pray with us before going to the hospital. I called our peds office [thank goodness they have Sunday office hours and were open!} to ask them which hospital they would prefer us take her too. They just told us not to go to St. Joseph East, because they do not have a neurologist on staff on the weekends.

We decided to go to Central Baptist because we thought it would be the quickest to get seen. We were taken straight back and examined by a doctor within 10 minutes. They took blood, cathed her, ct scan, and also a chest x-ray. It was horrible while they took her blood. It’s horrible anyway, but they were unable to get a vein and had to poke her like 8 times.

They ended up having to turn off the lights and using lights to find her veins. Abby was such a trooper, and it seemed as though she was posing for the camera when they did the chest x-ray. She lay perfectly still. I told her they were taking pictures of her beautiful insides, she actually smiled, which was so funny, however we all know that she is use to getting her picture taken.

All the tests came back normal. The doctor told us that we had 2 options, to follow up with her pediatrician and do an outpatient EEG, or to be admitted into UK for observation and have the EEG the following morning. I asked the doctor if it was his daughter what would he do, and he said without question I would go to UK. They offered to transport her by the ambulance, however once again we didn’t want to scare Abby so we told them we would transport her. We were put directly into a room. They treated Abigail like royalty and catered to her every need. They said she was one of the cutest babies they have had in there, I agreed, but I’m sure they tell most parents that. She flirted, strutted her stuff, and loved all of the attention!

You could rent toys so we were able to get her a little car and pull her around the hallway in. She would say hi to everyone we passed, it was so cute. We also had several friends stop by for visiting and to check on the lil Abbyroo.

Abby was acting her normal self the later part of the day on Sunday. Abby was put down for the night about 7:30 PM. They came and checked her vitals at 10:00 PM and she slept right through them. I don’t think I could sleep through someone taking my blood pressure, temp and listening to my heart. She slept till about 4:00 AM and then she wanted to get in bed with mommy.

We cuddled until about 6:00 AM when they checked her vitals again and then I fed her 8 oz of formula. She got in the exosasuer and played and then got a little cranky. I put her on my lap and she said “daddy uh oh”. I told her we could call daddy and check on him and how long it would be until he got to the hospital. She started seizing right then. Her little arms tensed up and she turned blue and was shaking.

I turned on the call light and ran to the hall and caught a doc in the hall so they could see her. Within a few seconds, there were 3 doctors and 10 nurses in our room. It was during a shift change so they had so many staff available.

Neurology came around about 9:30 and they said that along with the EEG they wanted to do an MRI that she wouldn’t be allowed to eat or drink anything else. They said she could have some pedylite until noon and then they would hook her to an IV. Jason left to go to his job interview and Cathy came and sat with us, which meant the world me to have someone there, who also has a medical background who can help me understand everything also. They called us down for the EEG and Jason made it back in time! They hooked about 25 different colored wires to her head. They scrubbed it down with an abrasive sandy cleaner and put some sort of balm on the ends of the wire heads to make them attach. It looked like colored weave. I told Abby it was a fancy hair bow! They then put wrap around on it to make it stay. It is hard to have a 9 month old not pull those wires off – ha-ha!!! They turned out the lights and put a camera looking thing in front of us and it flashed all sorts of light sequences, and then Abby fell asleep. She was such a trooper. We kept saying cheese while the flashes were going off and playing with a leap frog toy they had for kids there. We gave her a bath in the sink after that, it looked like she had wallered around in the sand.

MRI was scheduled for 330 – which was great since she wasn’t allowed to eat! However they were running behind, they took us back about 5:00. Gave her the sedation drug and she was asleep in my arms within 5 seconds. We were not allowed to be with her during the MRI. We had to wait in the lobby and it took about 30 minutes. They brought her out in recovery and she hadn’t woken up yet. We were with her about 20 minutes before she woke up. She was in a deep sleep; all of a sudden she opened her eyes, sat up and was ready to play! Crazy how that sedation drug worked. We followed this by having company and Jason making a trip to Wal-Mart for me so I could shower! They wanted us to stay another night.

We turned in about 8:30, however of course they needed vitals at 10, and Abby slept till 5:00 when she got in bed with me and cuddled till 6 and ate her breakfast. Neurology came to visit us about 9:00 and told us that the EEG, and MRI both read normal and they were diagnosing these as “feverol seizures” even though she didn’t have a fever. They explained that you can have these when you are sick and Abby currently has a double ear infection and diarrhea. They said every test looked perfect and that Abby was just as perfect on the inside as she was on the outside. We have to keep a really close eye on her during sicknesses. Even if it is diarrhea she could have a feveral seizure during this time. They gave us some medication to use and also went home with Amoxicillin for her ears.

UK Children’s hospital hated to see us go. The nurse gave us her cell # and told us to call if we needed anything today, if we got home and had a question. She said she would miss us and wasn’t eager to discharge us. Abby wore a sleeper and her bib with her name on it home. She entertained the shuttle by greeting everyone with a Hi mama, or a Hi daddy. The driver of the shuttle got us to the garage and came on the loud speaker and said, “everyone can exit to the right side of the bus, please be careful getting off of the shuttle down the ramp, and that Abby can be left with the driver.” Everyone laughed. We got home and Abby was so playful! Jason went to pick up her medicines, and had to end up going to 2 places to get the seizure meds because it was such a low dose, most pharmacies didn’t carry that low of a dose. We are home now, and Abby love she Elmo Balloons, she has carried them all around the house, I told her to be careful they may carry her off the ground, and I just want to hold her oh so close. She is too precious! God is good, and taking care of this little Abby roo. Thank you everyone for your love, support and prayers!!!