Sara - The Latest

Our girl has kept us hopping that's for sure.

On Thursday, Sara had her MRI back up at Primary.  She wanted to be sedated and she was seriously freaked out by the whole thing, but they were super with her.  A Child Life Specialist came in and told her everything that would happen and even demonstrated putting the IV in on a doll that Sara got to keep.  My sister-in-law Christine is also a Child Life Specialist and that was a great link for Sara to have with the girl that helped us.

She went in for the MRI a little later and Mitch and I waited in recovery.  The neurologist she saw while she was admitted did come down and said he'd be back when she was done and he'd had a chance to talk to the radiologists.

After they brought her out, the radiologists came out and asked a bunch of questions about the accident and her history.  The senior doctor said he was going back to talk to the neurologist and then the neurologist would come out to give us the story.  We were a little concerned about that, but Sara was waking up and the nurse was getting her to eat and drink.

The neurologist came back after she was up and ready to go.  Basically, he said "Yeah, we don't really know".  They want to keep an eye on her, see her again in a few months and let them know if anything changes.  He would have his office make the appointment with the ophthalmologist so they can get a baseline for her vision and see if it improves in time.  It's not Sturge-Weber, which we all knew by this point, since she's missing so many of the telltale symptoms.  It's just something that we know about now, should she ever have another head injury or develop more trouble with her vision.

We went home, where Sara was amazing.  She didn't have a headache, she ate, she talked with Jacob.  She even sat and watched football and told me how Brett Favre should just RETIRE ALREADY because really?  How old was he?  And then all these other quarterbacks who should retire when they get old - like Drew Brees - would say "Well Brett kept playing, so I can too" and then where would that leave the state of professional football?

Seriously.  Don't ever say we haven't taught our kids to socialize well in sports bar situations.

She wanted me to sleep in her room again, just for one more night, so we went to bed about 11.  She was wide awake.  She chattered for a while and then finally quieted down.  I thought we would finally get some sleep. 

After a few minutes, she said "Do you see that?"

I looked, but it was dark.  "See what?"

"My classroom.  My classroom is right over there."  She pointed to her closet.

I told her there was nothing there and she was imagining it and try to go to sleep.  In a few seconds, she was grabbing her forehead above her right eye and yelling that her head hurt again.  This was different than she had behaved before, where she was mostly quiet when her head hurt the most.  I brought her some Ibuprofen and after she took it, she said she had to throw up.  I took her to the bathroom, and sat her on the floor.  She leaned over the toilet and kept saying "I can't handle this", "I'm going to barf", "You don't understand".

Her voice sounded off.  I've never heard her say "barf" before.  She kept smacking her lips and saying her throat tasted nasty.  Everything she says, she ends with "Momma" or "Mommy".

She started snapping her fingers on her right hand over and over again.  We took her to our room after about 15 minutes, gave her the pink tub from the hospital because she was still saying she had to barf.  She drummed her fingers on the bottom of the tub.  I gave her the prescription for nausea.  By this time, it's shortly after midnight.  I called the neurologist on call at Primary hospital and waited for 10 minutes.  He didn't pick up, but we leave a message with the front desk that we are going to the ER.

Meanwhile, Sara is yelling that her head hurts, she can't handle it, she can't take it anymore. 

About halfway to the ER, she calms down some.  But she goes on and on about how she can't handle this, the doctors don't help, there's nothing they can do.  She's argumentative, whenever I say "It's okay" she responds with "It's not okay".  I'm worried and trying to say things that don't stir her up.  She asks where we are going and we tell her. 

We get to the hospital, where she is much calmer and almost herself.  Her headache is a 4 now, and she keeps asking if we are at the hospital for kids or the regular hospital.  Once she is taken back, the doctor comes in, pulls up her records - it's all one hospital system, so he even has her MRI results right there - and says he's going to contact the neurologist on call.  Mitch takes Jacob home.

The doctor comes back later and says he suspects it was a temporal lobe seizure.  Not what you think of when you hear seizure, a temporal lobe seizure is pretty much what Sara exhibited.  Seeing "auras" (or in this case, her classroom) is a sign one is about to hit.  They usually last about 30 seconds to 2 minutes.  Sara's was longer.  He was sending us home and told us to contact the neurologist's office the next day to schedule an EEG.

She falls asleep as we wait for Mitch to come back.

The next morning, I make the neurologist appointment for Monday and leave a message on the nurse line for her neurologist to call us.  Sara gets up about 10.  She comes to the living room where Mitch and I are and says "Why am I wearing this sweatshirt?" 

"Daddy put that on you when we went to the hospital last night."

She looks at us blankly and then looks at the hospital bracelet.  "I went to the hospital last night?"

She remembers nothing.  We aren't telling her too much, because I don't want her to think she "remembers" things about that night that she doesn't, if the neurologist asks.

They says it was most likely a side effect of the sedation medication.  It's unlikely to happen again.  But that's what they will talk about tomorrow when we go back.

Then Tuesday is the ophthalmologist.  I'm hoping she can go back to school Tuesday after that appointment.   Barring anything else, she will.  Keeping her home isn't medically necessary anymore, and I think it's just making all of us skittish.  We need to get her back into a routine. 

So that's where we stand.  It's been a heck of a week.  She's out playing with friends right now, while Mitch and Jacob went back to the fair to see the rodeo, which we had to skip last night when Sara started feeling bad again.  I'm trying not to get up and go outside to look for her to make sure she's okay.  It's hard to convince HER she's okay if I keep hovering.  But it's hard not to.