Another update

Well. Not too long after I blogged this morning, Jayden's condition got worse. I mentioned that my husband had to pick Jayden up from school early b/c he had a seizure. He got home and was on the couch when he had another one. Then, 10 minutes later, another one. I figured, what's the use in calling the Dr b/c she shows no sense of urgency anyway but once my baby started screaming "Mommy help me!" I was going to force some urgency on them. I called and I told the receptionist, " I need Dr. A or her nurse to call me back asap b/c Jayden is having multiple seizures RIGHT NOW and is not recovering." Jayden was SCREAMING in pain as I left the message. I hung up, not expecting a call back anytime soon and went and got a cool wash cloth to place on Jayden as my husband held on to him. 5 minutes after I left the message, the nurse called me back {gasp}. She immediately said, "Dr. A is not in the office today but her partner, Dr. W, said that you need to bring Jayden in to the ER right away." Then she says, "Please keep us posted on his condition, I'm in the office today until 5 pm." Seriously thinking that I talked to a different nurse who just happened to have the same name and voice as the other nurse. Weird.

Well we hopped in the truck and drove to the ER (45 minute drive!). He had another seizure in his car seat on the way there. We didn't wait long at all in the waiting room and didn't wait long to be seen by the ER Dr either. Jayden's eyes were open somewhat and he was barely alert. He responded to pain and followed the Dr with his eyes when she moved around the room. However, he could not lift his head, his reactions were delayed, and we could not lie him flat or even on his sides without him going into hysterics. They drew blood and inserted an IV and then called the neurologist. The neurologist considered him as status epilepticus, which is pretty much intermittent seizure activity for 15-20 minutes or longer without regaining consciousness. So he was given a dose of Ativan through his IV. In less than 2 minutes, Jayden went from being listless, nonverbal, super drowsy, eyes rolling, to being able to hold up his head, smiling, TALKING, and even squealing. I could not believe my eyes. It was seriously the most amazing thing I've witnessed in a long time. That medication brought my baby back in the blink of an eye. When the Dr came back, even she was amazed! She said that based on his reaction, he was more than likely still seizing the entire time (even though we hadn't seen any tensing of his body in the ER at all)and the Ativan stopped it almost immediately. The entire mood in that room was changed. So Jayden was discharged with a Rx for the tablet form of Ativan to take in case of another situation like this one. The Dr also told us that his Diastat (the rectal rescue med that we carry with us) works just like the Ativan and will probably work just as fast since it's rectal, so I won't have to be afraid to use that if needed. Also, I was under the assumption that it should only be used for seizures lasting 5 minutes or longer. The ER doc told me that intermittent seizures (like the ones Jayden was having) lasting more than 5 minutes are just as dangerous if the person isn't regaining consciousness, so they should be treated as if it was an ongoing seizure. Patient education is very important! So now I know that we are prepared no matter the situation although I would LOVE for the seizures to just go away and leave my poor baby alone. Also, we left the ER with a Rx for the medication that his neurologist wanted to add (Lamictal) to his combination on the 27th. I guess God agreed with me, in that there's no reason to make my baby suffer until the 27th. He started it tonight and will begin weaning off of the Topomax on the 27th. I left the emergency room with more hope than I've had since the last time we were able to see Dr. N, Jayden's previous neurologist. I'm praying that this new combination of meds does the trick for him.

There was something really strange that my husband and I noticed at home today, during the fiasco. We have two mini schnauzers, a male (Kodi) and a female (Kaci). Kaci is 6 yrs old, and very calm around Jayden. She lets him pull at her ears (we stop him whenever we catch him, but once he dragged her across the floor by her ears!). She lets him ride Spiderman on her back. She lets him put sunglasses on her face and then she wears them until he takes them off :) Kodi, on the other hand, is 9 yrs old and not as patient. When he sees Jayden coming, he walks away. He either goes under the dining table and lies there or he goes to the laundry room. In fact, usually Kodi stays in the laundry room until Jayden is either taking a nap, upstairs playing,at schoo, or gone to bed for the night. LOL! He just doesn't have the patience. Well, when Mike got home with Jayden, Kodi came barging out of the laundry room and met them at the door, sniffing Mike's leg. They greet us at the door often, so we paid no attention to this. I hugged Jayden and asked if he was okay and then he put him on the couch and Kodi laid down in front of the couch. Everytime Jayden moaned or whined, Kodi sat straight up. When Jayden started to get really upset and Mike went to pick him up, Kodi got defensive and seemed to be guarding Jayden. He stayed at Mike's foot as if he was watching his every move and his eyes stayed fixed on Jayden. After I spoke with the nurse and we were packing up to go to the ER, Kodi started whining and pacing the floors. Mike turned the truck on and I took Jayden out to put him in his car seat and Kodi was at the door barking. Mike said he went to put Kodi in the laundry room (they go in there when we leave the house) and Kodi would not stay in there. He was scratching at the wall and whining. While Mike was inside, Jayden had another seizure in the truck. I think Kodi can sense the seizures! Crazy. We are thinking of switching up sleeping arrangements and letting Kodi sleep in the room with Jayden each night. We know he has seizures in his sleep, but we are never able to know when. My worse fear is that he would have one in the middle of the night and can't call out to us for help if he needs us. We've considered getting a seizure monitoring system, but as with any electronic device, we would have to expect false alarms and that makes me too nervous. The fact that Kodi is sensing the seizures is like a hidden blessing in the midst of all this sadness. I thank God for every rainbow he is sending our way and I look forward to many more.