wow, did we have an eventful mother's day weekend! we went to chattanooga for the weekend and had a fabulous time! but more on that later...
while we were driving home from chattanooga and the boys were asleep in the back seat, sean started having a night terror. now, this is nothing new to us, he has them at least once a week. a couple weeks ago they had gotten really bad & he was having several a night. we realized it was linked to the baby horse dying because as soon as we talked to sean about it he stopped having them so often.
back to the car ride...
sean started having a night terror and so dathan and i both just started talking to him saying "it's ok sean, we are in the car on the way home. go back to sleep." i reached my hand back and placed it on his leg and it was shaking. now, usually he trembles when he has a night terror but this time he was shaking hard. i placed my hand on his other leg and it was also shaking just as badly. i turned on the light to find his whole body convulsing. by the time dathan pulled over the car & we got him out he had stopped. we talked to him to see if he was coherent then put him back in his seat and he fell back asleep (which is what is typical for night terrors, falling back to sleep immediately).
i called the after hours number for our pediatrician's office and had to wait over an hour and a half for the doctor to call us back (all the while we are driving towards home). finally the on call dr called me and when i explained what happened she said it sounded like he had a seizure and to take him to huntsville hospital (about an hour and a half from our house) because they had a pediatric neurologist & our local hospitals don't. we were about an hour away from huntsville so we drove there as quickly as we could.
my best friend erin came and met me at the ER while dathan took nolan to a hotel. well, apparently huntsville hospital has two separate ER's- a pediatric and a regular. nobody told us this so we went to the ER at the "regular" hospital. instead of telling us when we got there that we were at the wrong place, they checked us in and made us wait forever and then told us. then sent sean to triage. then we had to wait for a dr's approval to take him over to the pediatrics ER, then finally leave. probably added about 2 hours to our visit :/ that would have been good information to know beforehand. but anyways...
we head to the pediatric ER which was SO much nicer than the other one (and we were the only ones there!). they brought sean into a room where we waited... and waited... and waited. sean enjoyed laying in his own bed and watching cartoons on his own tv (he had no idea anything had happened to him & he was such a good sport for having to be in the hospital and not know why). erin & i always have a good time together so we just chatted. then we all started getting silly because it was SO late and we were all SO tired. i don't know how many hours we waited but finally a nurse came in and ran some tests on sean. she did the basic listen to his breathing/take his temp/ check blood pressure & oxygen, etc. then she hooked him up for an ekg. he loved that and laughed so hard at all the "stickers" she put on him (like i said, we were getting silly). this is the only photo i have of the night, and it's from my phone.
while we were driving home from chattanooga and the boys were asleep in the back seat, sean started having a night terror. now, this is nothing new to us, he has them at least once a week. a couple weeks ago they had gotten really bad & he was having several a night. we realized it was linked to the baby horse dying because as soon as we talked to sean about it he stopped having them so often.
back to the car ride...
sean started having a night terror and so dathan and i both just started talking to him saying "it's ok sean, we are in the car on the way home. go back to sleep." i reached my hand back and placed it on his leg and it was shaking. now, usually he trembles when he has a night terror but this time he was shaking hard. i placed my hand on his other leg and it was also shaking just as badly. i turned on the light to find his whole body convulsing. by the time dathan pulled over the car & we got him out he had stopped. we talked to him to see if he was coherent then put him back in his seat and he fell back asleep (which is what is typical for night terrors, falling back to sleep immediately).
i called the after hours number for our pediatrician's office and had to wait over an hour and a half for the doctor to call us back (all the while we are driving towards home). finally the on call dr called me and when i explained what happened she said it sounded like he had a seizure and to take him to huntsville hospital (about an hour and a half from our house) because they had a pediatric neurologist & our local hospitals don't. we were about an hour away from huntsville so we drove there as quickly as we could.
my best friend erin came and met me at the ER while dathan took nolan to a hotel. well, apparently huntsville hospital has two separate ER's- a pediatric and a regular. nobody told us this so we went to the ER at the "regular" hospital. instead of telling us when we got there that we were at the wrong place, they checked us in and made us wait forever and then told us. then sent sean to triage. then we had to wait for a dr's approval to take him over to the pediatrics ER, then finally leave. probably added about 2 hours to our visit :/ that would have been good information to know beforehand. but anyways...
we head to the pediatric ER which was SO much nicer than the other one (and we were the only ones there!). they brought sean into a room where we waited... and waited... and waited. sean enjoyed laying in his own bed and watching cartoons on his own tv (he had no idea anything had happened to him & he was such a good sport for having to be in the hospital and not know why). erin & i always have a good time together so we just chatted. then we all started getting silly because it was SO late and we were all SO tired. i don't know how many hours we waited but finally a nurse came in and ran some tests on sean. she did the basic listen to his breathing/take his temp/ check blood pressure & oxygen, etc. then she hooked him up for an ekg. he loved that and laughed so hard at all the "stickers" she put on him (like i said, we were getting silly). this is the only photo i have of the night, and it's from my phone.
after doing the ekg they had to draw blood, which was heartbreaking. he just cried & said "ow ow owie mommy!" and it took everything in me not to cry with him. he was so brave & took deep breaths and squeezed the football (that is next to him in the pic). then we waited some more. then the dr finally came in and told us everything came back normal (which is what we were expecting) and that further tests needed to be done to figure out what was going on, but none that needed to be done immediately at the hospital. finally, after 4:30 in the morning, we left the hospital (after not sleeping all night! well, sean had several hours of sleep in the car before we got there).
so now we take him to his pediatrician on friday morning and have a check up. then our pediatrician has to order him an MRI & EEG, as well as schedule an appointment with a pediatric neurologist (all of these need to be done in huntsville). they said it should take over a month to get it all done, unless another "episode" happens. dathan had night terrors accompanied w/ seizures when he was a small child and it is definitely a hereditary thing. that is one of the main reasons the drs want to pursue as much of this as possible before it has a chance to get bad. there is a definite possibility that it was not a seizure but instead a very strong night terror. but either way something needs to be done.
sean was fine all night and all day today. we praise God for that!
everyone keeps saying "oh that must have been so scary!" and "i'm so sorry i know that had to be terrifying!" but in all honesty it wasn't. dathan and i talked about it and we said that we had too much peace to be freaked. there was an incredible amount of peace in both of our hearts and there was never any worry or fear. all glory be to God alone!!
i will keep everyone updated as soon as we find anything out. and thank you for those who were aware of what was going on and were praying for us as well as those who sent their love & prayers to us after the fact! we are so thankful for our family & friends!
so now we take him to his pediatrician on friday morning and have a check up. then our pediatrician has to order him an MRI & EEG, as well as schedule an appointment with a pediatric neurologist (all of these need to be done in huntsville). they said it should take over a month to get it all done, unless another "episode" happens. dathan had night terrors accompanied w/ seizures when he was a small child and it is definitely a hereditary thing. that is one of the main reasons the drs want to pursue as much of this as possible before it has a chance to get bad. there is a definite possibility that it was not a seizure but instead a very strong night terror. but either way something needs to be done.
sean was fine all night and all day today. we praise God for that!
everyone keeps saying "oh that must have been so scary!" and "i'm so sorry i know that had to be terrifying!" but in all honesty it wasn't. dathan and i talked about it and we said that we had too much peace to be freaked. there was an incredible amount of peace in both of our hearts and there was never any worry or fear. all glory be to God alone!!
i will keep everyone updated as soon as we find anything out. and thank you for those who were aware of what was going on and were praying for us as well as those who sent their love & prayers to us after the fact! we are so thankful for our family & friends!
1 comment:
That is the power of God! No fear & peace & I am sooo thankful he is ok! He looks like such a trooper in that picture!
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