Why do I always feel like the only thing I post on here is updates on my kids health? Mercy sakes!
For those of you that don't know, I will start from the top!
Yesterday (Monday) Darren had a dr appt in the morning at 9 so we took El to school and the other 3 kids and I headed out for a day of shopping and running errands. We came home about the time Ellie was done with school, so picked her up and then realized that I had to replace the light bulb in my kitchen, but it would have been too easy had it just been a regular light bulb! SO we headed to Home Depot and a couple other places and grabbed some Applebees for supper. Sam was in Dallas TX for work, so we just decided to bring supper home and eat it there and have a "family movie night" as my kids love to call it. We had gotten off the interstate and were heading into Dike when Claire made a really wierd sound in the backseat. I actually commented something along the line of "knock it off, Claire-that noise freaks me out!" I looked in the rearview mirror and immediately yanked the car off the road. I jumped out and opened her door. She was twitching all over, her head was thrashing around, her eyes were rolling around in her head, and she was just making these really really wierd noises. Her lips started turning blue and then her face. I thought she was choking, so I tried to pry her mouth open, but her teeth were absolutely clamped shut. I honestly thought she was going to die. Do you know how terrifyingly scary it is to think your child is going to die and there isn't a thing you can do but watch it happen? I remember turning around and in a voice that I didn't even recognize as my own, scream "SOMEONE HELP ME!!!" I was trying to call 911 but it was like my fingers couldn't even move to unlock my phone. My friend Zach lives in the house that I happened to be close to and he heard me scream and came running out to help. Zach, for some really wierd reason, I noticed that you didn't have any shoes on, so I owe you some new socks! :) By that time, I was on the phone with 911. While I was (attempting to) talk to the dispatcher, another vehicle pulled over, and a lady wearing scrubs jumped out of the car and asked what was going on. I remember telling her that Claire wasn't breathing and she went to work, rubbing her chest and talking to her. She losened her buckles since Claire was still in her carseat. She tried to get me to tell her Claire's name and I couldn't even talk. She asked Darren what his little sister's name was and I remember his eyes being absolutely huge and he looked right at her and said "Her name is ClaireB". It makes me cry to even type that. He was so brave. By this time, I was absolutely hysterical-honestly and truly hysterical. Ellie was sobbing in the backseat and I couldn't even talk to her to calm her down. Looking back, it's almost embarrassing. I know I am far from the only one, but you never think that in that situation that you are going to completely fall apart, especially in front of all the other kids. I know that was just as, if not more, scary than what was happening with Claire-seeing your mommy fall completely apart and be hysterical is enough to freak out any kid!
By this time, there were all sorts of first responders showing up. You would think that since they are all volunteers it would take a bit, but not at all-it was AMAZING how fast they showed up! I will forever be grateful, from the very bottom of my heart, to all of those people, many of whom I don't even know, for dropping what they were doing at a moments notice and rushing to help my little girl. They loaded my baby girl in the ambulance and one of the EMTs told me that she was driving me to the hospital. I called my friend Kelli, who lives in Dike, to see if she could take my other kids. I will never forget her response "I can't Tiff-I'm sick and I don't want to make your kids sick. Tyler (her husband) can you go over to be with Tiff's kids?" I could hear him say "Sure. Why?" That, my friends, is what true friendship is all about. He agreed w/o even knowing why. We weren't to my house for 2 seconds when he pulled up and took the other kids into the house. I think I gave him some instructions for Kai, but not sure if they made any sense or not. When I lifted Darren out of the car to send him in the house, my poor little boy looked at me and just started sobbing with his head in my middle. That was the first time he cried, and it absolutely ripped my heart out. I told him that he could play Wii with Tyler and that seemed to cheer him up, so I am glad I was able to at least do that for him.
We got to the hospital right after the ambulance, and I will never forget running into the ER. I saw them lift her out of the ambulance and she was crying. Her favorite Hawkeye shirt was in tatters from when they had to cut it en route to the hospital. I actually had the foresight, thankfully, to send her blanky along with her, so I was glad she had that.
My poor hubby was in Texas at the time, and it was awful storms there. He went to the airport to see about getting a flight home, but it was not to be. Turns out that all the flights after 6pm were canceled due to the storms so there was no way he could get home. We just kept texting and talking on the phone, and it all worked out ok.
Long story short, we went to the ER, they did a blood test and a urine test and it all came back fine, so they said we could go home! By this time, Claire had covered her bare tummy with all the stickers that she had been given, and was thinking that she was pretty cool since she got to have some pop! We don't do a lot of pop at our house, and esp for the kids, so that was a REAL treat. Someone commented to me that if she would have asked for a pony at that point, I probably would have given it to her and it's absolutely true! The doctor just said to call our family doctor in the morning and go from there. I went home thinking that was the end of it. Of course that would be too easy. Our doctor called last night and told Sam that she is referring Claire to a pediatric neurologist since she had absolutely no symptoms prior to the seziure-no fevers, no sickness, nothing. I cried. I told Sam that I just don't want to do this again. I don't want to do the headaches, the waiting, the stress...I don't want to do ANY of it again. It's horrible-I am so paranoid now. I hate having her out of my sight, afraid that she might have another seziure and I won't be around. I'm scared to let her go outside to ride her bike, afraid that she might have a seziure and fall off and hit her head on the cement. Yesterday in the car when we went to go get Sam at the airport, every time she made any noise at all, my heart lurched and no joke, I bet I checked her in my rearview mirror about every 5 seconds. I am NOT that type of person, so it drives me crazy, but I can't help it.
Talked to the referral person at our drs office this morning and she informed me that the wait for an appt in Iowa City was pretty long. She didn't know how long, so I called Iowa City myself and was informed that it was approximately October before we would get one and it would probably be several months before they would even let me know when our appt was. I called Des Moines, and theirs was August. Again, I cried. Our only hope for an earlier appt would be if our dr would call directly to one of their drs. I left a msg for her in hopes that she would do that, but we will see what happens.
Thank you to everyone for your kind comments of encouragement and all of the prayers. We all appreciate them so much and please keep praying for my baby girl. Thanks~
No comments:
Post a Comment