Friday, April 9, 2010

Back in the hospital

Jayden's seizures returned with a vengeance on Monday. Between Monday and Tuesday, we'd lost count of the seizures and by Tuesday afternoon, he started vomitting which is a serious red flag. I called Jyden's neurologist and the nurse called us back and told me that Dr. Nelson wanted us to take Jayden to Children's Hospital to be evaluated by Dr. M, a pediatric neurologist. Now, Dr. Nelson is Jayden's neurologist, but he was seeking a scond opinion on Jayden's condition and he obviously thinks highly enough of Dr. M to trust one of his sicker patients in her care. So we took Jayden to Children's ER. He had a couple of seizures during the ride there and he threw up all over the backseat. I actually had to hold him on my lap. So he was in pretty bad condition. We got to the ER and I signed him in and we waited...an waited...and waited!! He was called back for triage and when I stood him on the scale he fell. He couldn't even stand up :( The nurse took his vitals and returned us to the waiting room and we waited there for close to an hour. This was the 4th time we have had to take Jayden to the ER for seizures (the 2nd time in 4 days) and this was the only time he had to wait out in the ER waiting room, which surprised me at a hospital exclusively for children. And it didn't get any better once we met the ER dr. He asked some questions and we told him that Jayden had had countless seizures that day and that he vomitted twice on the way to the ER. We also told him that Dr. Nelson ordered us to bring Jayden there to be seen by Dr. M. The ER day told us that Dr. M was not at the hospital and "I can tell you that she is not going to come to the ER to see him b/c this is not an emergency." Say what?!?! So I asked him if he could please contact Dr. Nelson b/c he told us we needed to bring Jayden here. So the ER dr huffs out of the room and minutes later we hear him screaming back at someone on the phone and talking about Jayden and saying things like "no seizures in the ER", "does not need to be admitted", "playing with his toy"...Did I mention my mom was there with us, and that she is a nurse? So she got angry. The ER doc came back in an basically told us that Dr. M is pissed b/c Dr.Nelson shouldn't have sent Jayden to the ER b/c it isn't an emergency and she will not come to the ER to see him but she will be happy to see him if we make an appt. Then he went on to tell us why it wasn't an emergency: "Jayden followed orders, he opened his mouth when I asked him to." "He has not had any seizures in the ER." So I guess the countless seizures he had through the day were irrelevant. He also had the nerve to say, "he's playing with his spiderman toy, he's fine." Um, seriously, Jayden was dragging and barely holding on to that spiderman toy and every now and then he would attempt to make the thing move. Usually, Jayden would have Spiderman throwing invisible webs at your face or climbing up every wall in the room while he would attempt to do the same. This pissed me off b/c that's a part of the reason it took so long to find out he had Celiac Disease. Even when he feels bad, he tries to fight through it. He's a fighter! And the GI drs told me he was too "happy" to have anything wrong with him. So don't go there. My mom gave the ER dr a piece of her mind before he politely handed us discharge papers after not doing a thing for Jayden. We took him home and went to bed. The next morning he woke up still vomitting all over. This time, right in my face. Fun. I called the Dr and left a message about what happened the night before. Then we tried just letting him watch some tv and relax. Well every sound coming from the TV triggered a seizure. Then he started hallucinating. Great. Dr. Nelson called back. I explained that maybe I misunderstood the instructions from his nurse about last night. Dr. Nelson said that there was a misunderstanding but that it wasn't on my part. His intentions were for Jayden to be admitted to Children's Hospital on Tuesday and consult with Dr. M once she made rounds on Wednesday. He said that Jayden NEEDS to be in the hospital until the seizures are under control, so we came back to Tulane. We signed in at the ER and barely sat down for 2 minutes before he was taken to a bed. A CT scan was ordered immdiately b/c seizures and vomitting is not the perfect combination. Thankfully the CT scan came back normal, and he was admitted for further testing and observation.

Today he is doing well. He hasn't had any more seizures since being admitted and starting Keppra!!, so I'm pretty sure that when they discharge him he will have to continue that awesome drug. It's awesome b/c it stops his seizures, but it's also awesome (sarcasm!!) b/c it makes him incredibly emotional and angry so I suspect he will have a rough time in school next week if he's able to go back by then. But no seizures was the goal and I think we've reached that. He's been in great spirits while here. Right now he is riding the halls with his daddy, on a tricycle and he just brought me some food that he cooked for me in the playroom. I'm waiting around in the room for the neurologist to discuss a plan of action and hopefully get discharged. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for Jayden. God is definitely healing him!

4 comments:

LL said...

Oh Nia, what an ordeal at that hospital! I am so sorry! Please know that Jayden is always in my prayers.

Jess said...

Oh dear, what an AWFUL experience. Uuuugh. Irregardless of ANYTHING, the nurses in the ER should NOT have behaved that way!

I'm glad Jayden is doing better, now, though.

Anonymous said...

Just catching up with your blog after seeing you on the nest. So sorry to hear about your son's seizures :( Owen has epilepsy but has never had seizures that severe. What a nightmare you had in the hospital too!

When O first started on meds @ 18 months, he started on Keppra and it gave him insomnia. I've heard about the "Keppra rage." O's on Trileptal now with no side effects. Sounds like J's seizures are pretty severe, though, so maybe a switch is too risky?

If you haven't discovered it epilepsy.org has a helpful chat board. Not much traffic, but supportive and searchable.

Mommy said...

SS, Jayden is actually on Trileptal and Topomax, and since being discharged they've started him on the lowest dose of Keppra as well. So far he's handling it well :)