Our Crazy Week, Part 2

So I thought things could only get better after Jacob finally got over what has to be Salmonella. I was wrong.

Last Thursday was just like any other day. I took the boys to the park to play and feed the ducks. We met up with Marty and his grandma at Olive Garden; she wanted to take Jake out to lunch before school started on the following Monday. I got the kids home after lunch, and put Ben down for a nap. We played outside after nap. We had dinner and went outside again. The boys played with their friends on the swing set. Ben must have gone down the slide fifty times. Their friends had to go home around 8:00. I went inside to start the tub while Marty went around front to get the kids in and clean up the toys.

I just remember sitting on the side of the tub, waiting for it to fill. I heard Marty say in a very panicked voice (Marty NEVER panicks) "Jenny come quick, something is wrong with Ben. JENNY!!!). I ran into Ben's room. Marty had laid him on the changing table. I looked at my baby and saw him having a seizure. His color was quite dusky. All four extremities were moving rigidly in a rhythmic motion. His head was turned up to the right corner, and his eyes were rolled to the upper right hand corner. I was petrified. Forget being a nurse. I was a mom and my heart hurt like I have never hurt before. I told Marty to call 911. He gave the dispatcher our address and the initial information about what our emergency was. I took the phone from him and started rattling off my assessment. She asked me if he was conscious, and I remember wanting to say "Are you for real? He's having a seizure!" But I bit my tongue and answered her questions. I had Marty time it. It lasted for 5-6 minutes. He had stopped by the time the paramedics arrived. His sugar was fine, his temp was 98.5. His other vitals were stable. We went to the ER since Ben has never had a seizure before. And yes, I was quite petrified. Is it a brain tumor? Does he have some kind of brain lesion, be it an old or new brain bleed? Did he fall while we were not looking? Did he eat something? Is there lead in any of his toys? Did one of the new energy-efficient light bulbs break that we don't know about and he has mercury poisoning? Etc, etc, etc.

Long story short (for now at least) his CT scan was normal. His labs were normal. His lumbar puncture was normal (in fact it was one of the best and clearest LPs I've seen).

We are now seeing Dr. Denise Morita, a pediatric neurologist at Primary Children's. Her PA was not so impressive; she came across as being too concerned about looking cute and being ditzy. The exam room was so not how I would imagine a premiere children's hospital. In fact I was quite underwhelmed with my PCMC experience until Dr. Morita came in to talk with us. She was wonderful. She ordered an EEG and a sedated brain MRI. We were able to get the EEG while we were there. However, the MRI isn't scheduled until October 2. She gave a prescription for diazepam PR to give for seizures lasting longer than five minutes. She explained that if the EEG and MRI come back negative, they will go on a working diagnosis of epilepsy since it runs in my family. Yes, Larsons have the funky genes. Dr. Morita explained that to them, a diagnosis of epilepsy is a good thing, versus brain tumors, head trauma, etc. Sounds good to me.

Anyway, this is all we know, but we will definitely keep you posted. Here's a cute picture of Ben with his EEG gear on: