A Memorable 40th

Who would think that I would be in the ER - again - on my 40th birthday? Or that I would have a migraine to go along with that? Super-Hero took the kids to church so they wouldn't miss out on their new classes. But during Sunday School, Holland told his teacher he wasn't feeling well and he was shaking all over. They came home and then my mom called and told me to have super-hero bring the kids over so I could rest. She called later to see how I was doing (still had the migraine. Hadn't heard from the on-call dr. for medicine). She told me that Holland was shaking really bad and complaining of things crawling on him. This wasn't the first time I'd seen that. He has woken in the middle of the night screaming that bugs and spiders are in his room or are crawling all over him. I reassure him that there's nothing there, but he doesn't believe me.

So we went to the ER to have him checked out. They did blood work and all his levels were within normal range. The ER doctor called our physician to ask what to do. We ended up reducing the dose on one medicine and omitting another medicine altogether. He thought maybe the two were interacting and causing the trembling and hallucinations he was experiencing. Last week I had made an appointment with this doctor to discuss his current doses and see if we needed to change anything. He is, afterall, 10 and hitting the age when hormones are going to kick in. After speaking with him and examining Hunter, he believed he was having seizures. The word didn't even stick when he said it. I didn't understand. I thought the medicines he is taking were reacting, but he said after talking and looking back on his history of meds that the medicines were not the cause. They actually could have been preventing the seizures. It turns out that two of the medicines he's been on to treat Bipolar were actually anti-seizure medications. So if he in fact is having seizures, the medicines were actually helping to prevent them.

He faxed in a request for an EEG up at Emanuel (it's like a second home now) and I made an appointment as soon as we got home. July 2nd. 10:15. It will be what is called a "sleep-deprived" EEG. They want to monitor brain activity and the best way is on less sleep. I'm thankful that we got an appointment so quickly and Holland will be happy that there's no poking involved.

Speaking of poking, I almost forgot one of the best things that happened last night in the ER. If you follow my blog at all, you know that my mom pays Holland $5 every time he has blood work done. In the beginning it was me and about 4 nurses trying to hold him down to draw blood. It was awful. My mom had the brilliant idea of paying him each time to see if he would calm down. Since money is his "love language", it worked like a charm! So we're sitting in the ER room and the doctor said they were going to do some blood work and he got this look of terror in his eyes. He was already upset and jumpy and hearing the words "blood work" did not go over well. He asked gramma if she would pay him for having the blood work and she said yes. She gave him the $5 and he asked since he was in the hospital if he could have another $5 afterwards. She didn't have it on her, but assured him that he would get the money. When our phlebotomist came in (not a nurse, a phlebotomist!) and she heard the story of the payment plan, she took $5 out of her pocket and gave it to Holland! He had the biggest grin on his face. He'll never forget getting 5 dollars from the "grandma" at the hospital!

The ER Queen

There is no shortage of fun and excitement around here and last night proved that.  Five minutes after arriving home from getting Romania at the bus stop, I was on the phone with my pediatrician wondering if I should take Egypt to the ER.  Holland and Egypt were playing outside and within minutes she was in the house screaming and blood dripping out of her mouth.  That's one thing you never want to see when your child is injured.  Holland helped piece together what happened:  the kids were playing with squirt guns and Egypt thought she was being chased.  She was pretending to be an elephant and was running with a plastic sword in her mouth.  She tripped and the sword jammed in her throat.  

So I told the boys to stay with the neighbor and then off we went to the ER.  I was just there a month ago with Romania for the dog bite incident.  The first doctor to see her said "I don't see anything" while looking in her mouth without a light.  Okay, even I know I wouldn't see anything like that.  Then a male nurse came in and said "looks okay to me".  Luckily, there was an ENT right next door at his office that they called over.  He looked her over very carefully and explained that although she hadn't punctured anything, the blunt trauma could be damaging.

She has pretty good bruising on both sides going down her throat.  He said she scraped it pretty good (hence the blood).  But there was something called Horner's Syndrome that could take up to three days to show up.  It is a nerve injury and I was given a whole list of things to watch for (drooping or sagging on one side of her face; one pupil constricted; clumsiness....)  I even had to wake her up last night to check her out.   She couldn't even eat last night.  She barely drank milk and even this morning was complaining that it hurt.  

Life is never dull.....

Another Trip to the ER

I think we are on a first-name basis with doctors at two different hospitals. Romania finally ended up in the ER on Monday night from a dog bite. I guess it was his turn to be in the hospital. Holland and Egypt have had their fair share of injuries, illnesses and mishaps. He was playing next door with the neighbor's son, doing boy things - running around with nerf guns. He tried to pet their Pomeranian and she didn't see him and freaked and bit him on the face. So at 5.45 I left for the emergency room. I was just putting dinner on the table. Super-Hero had just walked in the door when I was walking out. Pure chaos - which is completely normal at our house.

He did amazingly well. They put a topical numbing liquid on his lip, he had several x-rays of his face done to make sure no teeth fragments were left in and then he got three stitches. He was treated to dinner at McDonald's and then we picked up an antibiotic. And unlike all those television programs on emergency rooms, this was snail-slow. We were there almost three hours. Nothing is fast about the ER (except maybe the bill). I let us all sleep in this morning and then drove him to school. He was so proud of his stitches and showed all his classmates. He doesn't know that come Saturday when he has them taken out it's gonna hurt worse because it won't be numb. Looking forward to Saturday.