What A Day Can Bring Forth

1. It’s been said, ” You never know what a day will bring forth”. Yesterday was one of those days that I thought would be like any other. All of which come with it’s challenges, responsibilities and the unknown. Never would I be prepared for what was about to unfold.

Like any other school day; I literally took Logan out of his bed; body and bones, then laid him on the sofa. And gradually prepared him for his day at school. Once prepared, off to the bus stop and  kissed him good bye and wished him a good day. Now I go back to the house to face my day. Little did I know what was about to transpire.

Lisa and Lauren were now up, it looked like it was going to be a PJ day for them. Lauren didn’t have daycare, it was what she calls, “a stay home day” for her. During the jigs and reels I asked, ‘so how did she sleep last night?’ With CP you never know; each  day and night can be so different. To which Lisa replied,  “she had another terror seizure that lasted a few minutes”. We were now getting a little concerned because she was having them more frequently. Her medication was already increased but Lisa thought she should call Lauren’s neurologist and see if we could up her medication again. So she called his nurse and told her our concerns. Who said, ‘she would talk to the doctor and call her back’. So we waited to see what the verdict would be.

Lauren then decides she would like some ‘baba’ (bottle of milk). So Lisa snuggles her with bankie (blanket) and bottle. Before long she is fast to sleep. The trauma that unfolds next will be forever embedded in our memory.

Maybe five minutes into her sleep, Lisa gets my attention and says,’ look’; pointing with her head to look at Lauren’s hand. Her little hand was twitching, something wasn’t right, then her head starts to twitch. This is going to be a seizure like no other that she has had before. I grab my phone and start to video her seizure (we were told by her neurologist to do this, so it would give them a better understanding of what type of seizure she was having and just exactly what was going on).

Three – four minutes past and she was starting to froth at the mouth, eyes twitching, no response and a gargling sound from her throat. Lisa said, “Get the recovery medicine”. I quickly retrieve it and Lisa administers it by rubbing the Ativan into her cheek. I grab the phone again to video the horror, not wanting to but knowing it’s what I have to do. I just want to grab her in my arms and run. We wait maybe two minutes, three minutes, four minutes; then I realize through my tears, that this is not working. Panic sets in and we are both now in motion, we have to go. Quick decisions; do we call the ambulance? No, it takes forever for them to get here, the last time was about twenty minutes; we are running out of time. Do we go to the Janeway or Carbonear? Janeway too far. So it’s the van and Carbonear. Lisa still in her PJ’s takes the driver seat, while I hold Lauren and sets in the back seat and puts the seat belt around both of us. Off we go to the ER.

Still no response, frothing at the mouth, eyes not focused when open, eyes twitching when closed, hand and head still twitching and the rest of her body lifeless. Enroute, Lisa with emergency flashers on, horn blowing and still some idiots just driving along viewing the scenery at 60 km/h in a 100km zone. And here we are with our child lying lifeless and still not responding and we are trying to move through the slow moving traffic. Panic, fear, hatred,  helplessness are just a few of the emotions that are arising. What seems like hours, but it’s now over 30 minutes and she’s still in this hellish seizure.  Lisa is asking what’s going on and I don’t know how to answer. She is limp in my arms and no response; my only glimmer of hope was she is not blue, so she must be breathing.

We pull into the emergency parking and we run, run, run! Once inside, we are quickly escorted to the trauma room. She is quickly equipped with different monitoring devices that I know nothing about. She is, by this time, starting to cry; thank you Jesus! She’s coming out of this seizure, finally. Then our thoughts run to, is there any damage done to her brain? This is always our greatest fear! But, it’ll be several hours later before we, ourselves, can assess our most haunting worries.

She is still pretty ‘out of it’; very lethargic. The blood collection team comes and we are like, 0h no! She is going to ‘put her up’! Much to our surprise, she barely flinches; there’s a first time for everything.

It’s late evening before she is admitted and moved to her room on the fifth floor. By this time, We are noticing she is back to somewhat of her normal self; we see no signs of anything worrisome. The worst is over and we can breathe a little easier. Lauren helps ease the tenseness of the situation as she is looking forward to having a sleepover in her ‘hotel’ room! She is fascinated with the beds and settles in quickly! The ‘ladies’ (nurses) come in to get vital signs and she willingly participates because they are just measuring how happy she is to be there! No tears or uneasiness at all, so we have to go along with the ‘game’ to keep her settled and happy!

We realize that Lauren, in addition to cerebral palsy, also has epilepsy and will require 24-7 monitoring. It’s not going away without a miracle and if we don’t get one, then I pray God will give us the strength, courage and guidance to face the days ahead. Again, we cannot do this in our own strength; so please God, “here we are!”