Tummy bug & seizures

Feburary 2011 Brooklyn had a cardiology appointment at UNM hospital where she came into contact with the tummy Bug germ. She had a fever, vomiting, and diarrhea for several days which resulted in her not keeping her anti seizure meds down. We took her in to the ER and after having tried about 6 times to start an IV with no success they decided to give her oral meds and hope that she kept them down. After watching her for several hours they decided that she was able to go home. The next day she was very lethargic and wouldn't eat or drink anything. Whenever I was putting her into bed she began having seizure. We were driving to the hospital and decided to call for an ambulance a couple of miles from the house. After getting her into the ambulance she began having another seizure her oxygen sats dropped very low and they had to bag her back up until the seizure was over about 3 & 1/2 min. They gave her valum to relax her muscles so that if she had another seizure her air way would stay open. We arrived in the ER and they got an IV in and we were waiting to be admitted she had another seizure. This time they gave her a high dose of adaban to stop the seizures. When we finally got up stairs at 4:00am they decided to draw blood to do labs. Every time that they touched her she would have seizures one right after another, lasting until about 6:00am. The doctor came in and decided to hive her more adaban to get the seizures stopped again and put her on 15 liters of blow by oxygen to get her sats back up . Later on during the day she was having "staring spells" And the doctor feared that this was going to result in her having more seizures so decided to give more adaban. After having an EEG they decided that she could have a bath. When we were trying to bathe her she had no muscle tone at all and couldnt even hold her head up. We later found out this was due to the neurological team more than doubling her baseline dose of Keppra (her home anti convulsion meds). After a couple of days in the hospital she began feeling much better and neurology decided that she would be okay on her baseline dose of keppra & send her home. After being home for a couple of days she now has some kind of upper respiratory infection.

update

I haven't updated in quite a while, as things are chaos around my house on a daily basis. Having two very busy toddlers leaves for very little time to sit in front of the computer and blog!! But hey No news is good news, because seems like the only time I am blogging is when we are in the hospital with some kind of ailment. Brooklyn is doing absolutely wonderful and hasn't been ill in over 6 months!!! This is amazing to us!! Now to just make it through flu season!! Her developmental progress is coming along slowly but surely!! With the help of multiple speech and OT therapy sessions a month. She is walking and running around everywhere, and getting into every thing she can!! Her speech is still very delayed do to poor muscle control, but she does very well communicating to us with sign language!! She has a very good sign vocabulary of about 50 words or more and is starting to use multiple signs together to communicate what she needs!! Such as "want more candy"(one of her favorites!!) and "cry baby"(don't know where she picked this one up?) She is growing so fast!! Still her baby sister is as big as she is actually bigger by a few pounds, and they often get mistaken for twins. The girls are 14 months apart but Brook is still very small for her age. She hasn't ever measured out of the 5th percentile. We are very proud of our little miracle baby and are enjoying every day of watching her grow and learn new things!!!

Home

Finally home from the hospital!!!!!! We were released yesterday. I had a good rest last night and did some much needed house cleaning today (as much as I could running from room to room so as not to leave Brookie alone by her self, because I am now paranoid again) Before these seizures it had been since the mid to end of last year since she had any seizures. I had started to relax and take for granted that her seizures were under control. I am now absolutely terrified that she is going to start having more. She is doing much better today she was still tired, but she did play a little bit. Her Echo cardiogram and EKG went very well and they said that she would not need to be seen for another 6 months!!! She was also followed by all of her other specialist while in the hospital and they all seemed to be happy with how she is doing!!! I want to say again thanks so much to everyone who prayed for our baby girl!!

more testing!!!!!!!!

We are still in the hospital, but are definitely going to be released tomorrow!!! The swallow study went great!! The hearing screening was a little concerning for me but the audiologist said that she wasn't worried a great deal about her hearing, and commented that she did only respond to the higher range of the spectrum and that could be caused by slight hearing loss. Brook was very distracted and we are going to repeat it again in 1-3 months. We have an Echo cardiogram and a EKG scheduled in the morning, then we should be free to go!!! I can't wait to go home and catch up on some MUCH needed rest!!!!!!!! Many thanks to every one for your prayers!!! The Biggest thanks to Alisha for all of the goodies!!! Much appreciation for my mommy and Two older sisters who helped out so much with my other kiddos!!!!

hospitalized due to seizures again

After what started as a 3 day tummy bug,we are now in the hospital again for the second time in 2010. Brooklyn had 2 seizures at home in a 12 hour period. We made the choice to bring her in to the hospital. Pulling in to the parking garage she had a seizure in the carseat. I pulled her out and we rushed in to the ER while she was actively seizing. While in the ER they tested her blood sugar and discovered that it was 42 very low. She was having light seizures "staring spells" about every 5-10 min that were lasting about 30 seconds a piece(during these she did not loose resperation). The nurses in the ER could not start an IV line (that she desperately needed), after sticking her 15 times they decided to send her up to the anesthesia department to have them try. When we made it up to the room she had another bad seizure. During this one I remember the nurse yelling "get a trachea tube kit!!" My heart sank all I could think was PLEASE GOD NO!!! I was terrified to say the least!! after the seizure ended, the doctor decided that it would be best to put her under anesthesia to start the IV line that she needed very badly. they took her away from us and I was so scared to just be away from her, and have no clue what was happening to her. The doctor walked out and I nearly ran at him to have him tell me that every thing went great (after all, they were only starting an IV). Things did not go great, the doctor said that it was horrible. While under heavy anesthesia she had 3 severe seizures and the only line that they could start was in a main vessel in her neck. (very scary to hear that your baby girl is having violent jerking seizures while a doctor is sticking a sharp object in a vital artery) They gave her high doses of glucose and anti seizure medications. He said that she did not have to have a tracheostomy. I burst into tears (tears of joy, tears of worry, tears of sadness, tears just because I could just handle no more) the doctor did something I needed most at that moment. He took my hand and started to say a prayer for god to keep our baby girl in his hand and to heal her little body. He also prayed for god to give me some much needed strength in this time. While sitting in the waiting room I just cried feeling so bad for my poor baby girl and that she was having to go through all of this. After she recovered enough we were able to go back and be with her, seeing her was was very reassuring. In anesthesia they monitored her for about 30 minutes then she was sent back to the ER, to wait for a room up stairs.

Today she is doing much better, the doctor even said that there was a possibility of going home tomorrow, but he wants to do a swallow study and a hearing screen. He also wants to address the low blood sugar issue with her endocrinologist, to make sure he isn't concerned that this will be an on going thing. The difference in her health from yesterday is absolutly AMAZING!! She is feeling much much better!!!

Stomach virus causes seizure.

Brookie has had the stomach virus for the past 3 days and has been trowing up every thing she eats and drinks (including her medicine). With out having her Calcium, Anti seizure, and heart meds she get even sicker. Tonight (march 5, 2010) Brookie was taking a bath with her little sister, and they were playing and having fun. I felt Brookie fall over and hit my arm while I was washing the baby. I thought that she had just lost her balance so i tried to sit her back up then I realized that her eyes were rolling back in her head and that she was not breathing and starting to become blue around her mouth, her body was very tense. She was having a seizure. I started to yell for Ben all while trying to calm Bryson (who has never seen her have a seizure) and reassure him that his baby sister is going to be okay. After about 3 minutes and Ben having to do some rescue breaths she came out of it. She is resting right now and we are going to watch her to make sure that she doesn't have anymore within 24 hours, and since it didn't last longer than 4 minutes they doctor told us that she didn't need to go to the hospital unless there was something else we were concerned about.

Hospitalized with bronchitis.

Sick With Bronchitis

Pulse ox

Sleeping during a breathing treatment

In January of 2010 we took Brooklyn to the urgent care center due to her having a fever, cough congestion, and runny nose. The doctor checked her oxygen level and said that she was dipping down in the 70's, and that she felt we needed to take her to the hospital to be monitored!!! We took her to wise county, where she received IV antibiotics and oxygen. They diagnosed her as having bronchitis and were released a couple of hours later. The next day brook woke up around 8:00 AM then fell back asleep & slept from about 10:00 AM to about 5:00 PM She had rapid breathing, fever, and same symptoms as the day before. She wouldn't drink anythink and I feared that she was going to become dehydrated. We decided to call the doctor to see if we should bring her back in. She reccommended that we take her to Cooks children's where all of her specialists are. We were there in a packed waiting room but only waited about 5 min. to go back, and they decided that we were going to stay. We were monitored for 3 days, and her fever broke, she was doing much better and we were released!!!