A Month of Illnesses

It's been a month of health issues.

On November 30th...

We were in the middle of a school meeting that morning with Cayman's teacher and therapists when she became very pale and tired.  She laid against Mike listless like she might fall asleep.  He passed her to me so he could look after the operative Kobe who was roaming the room looking for chaos.  I noticed along with Cayman's paleness she had decreased muscle tone.  Although awake and coherent she was limp, weak in the arms and legs.  Then she threw up all over the both of us.  That ended the meeting fast.  We hit the road for the hospital, not quite sure what this was.  Always when there is vomiting with the combination of lethargy a flag goes up - is it the shunt malfunctioning??  We headed toward Ann Arbor, Mike driving and me in the back balancing calm normalcy for Kobe and keeping stats monitored on Cayman.  She kept wanting to fall asleep.  Which if this was the flu maybe she just needed a good rest to feel better, I thought to myself.  But if she went to sleep it was harder for me to monitor her neurologically as well.  I chose to try my best and keep her awake for the 45 minute drive, interacting with toys and talking about what Brother over there in his car seat was doing.  She eventually spaced out completely although still awake.  She moved her eyes looking around but it's like she wasn't really in there.

 

That's when we got nervous.  That day her heart stopped beating 2 1/2 years ago haunts us in these kind of moments.  She had become quiet and less appropriate responding like this until her brain and heart conked out completely.  Now there's been similar times to this that did not transpire into the parents' worst nightmare reoccurring.  So it doesn't always mean that is what will happen again.  It's just that we don't know which time is the more serious and which are mediocre in comparison. But the fear is that hindsight will leave a heart full of remorse and a mind tortured with the "I wish I would have..." and "If only we'd done...".  So we called the ambulance. They met us on the side of the road and Mike carried Cayman's limp body onto the ambulance.  We switched places and I joined Cayman.  She perked up a little and even tolerated propped sitting up while we road.  All that nervous activity of unknowns with a pregnant belly in the back of a bouncy ambulance, I really regretted not putting the zofran in my purse that morning.  I didn't but there were a few times I thought I might join Cayman in vomiting on that trip. 

In the ambulance.

She had puked two more times in the van and then again in the ambulance.

At Mott's ER Cayman was looking the same.  She'd wake up and follow some directions but pretty out of it.  She didn't flinch or cry out in pain when they started her IV.  She didn't put up a fight about anything.  Then she fell back to sleep and could not be aroused awake at all. 

The medical staff began to rush along the process, calling the neurosurgeon and warning the OR she might be headed in soon.  She was put in a larger room and intubation equipment was pulled out for a quick intervention if it became necessary.  

Kobe and I hung out in the waiting room together during the more intense times, keeping things calm for this little guy's emotions.

 A few minutes later she went in for a fast MRI.  And it was in the middle of that test when she woke up as if none of the day's previous intensity had ever happened!  Awake and talking, about 80% from her baseline, wanting to eat and drink.  So weird.

This is her highlighted love, to be pushed down the hallway in a bed! It makes her happy!

She won herself an admittance to the hospital, a night of having mommy and daddy all to herself.

Sister and Brother saying good-bye to each other.  They were crying because they were irritated by each other's presence, not getting along sitting on the bed together.

Kobe went home with Grandma Sue and Grandpa.

Daddy entertained Kobe with wheelchair rides in the hallway.

And the next day, all was still great!  Everything was normal again.

In the hospital's play room, with a major condition of bed hair.

Stretching the legs for a little stroll.

Peek-a-boo Momma!

Meeting Star Wars characters.  Cayman was not a fan!

Getting her IV out for discharge!

Cayman's hospital room, a room all to ourselves in the gorgeous and new Mott's Children hospital.

Leaving the hospital wearing Kobe's coat and hat.  By accident his was left in Cayman's hospital room when he went home with Grandma and Grandpa.  And so instead of going all the way back to the room to get it, Kobe was given Cayman's pink and green coat to wear which was in our van.

That event played over and over in my mind's need to mystery solve.  I think I figured it out, answers feel good to derive.  About 15 minutes before the school meeting I gave Cayman her morning dose of a homeopathic remedy for seizures.  I also gave Kobe some chamomile, that natural remedy found in infant teething tablets.  He had been so crabby and I suspected he might be cutting his 2nd year molars.  Cayman begged for some too.  She's had chamomile before, we gave it to her as a teething babe too, so I had no reason to think there was harm in it for her.  At the least and the very best I thought it'd help the kids be calm and relaxed for an uneventful school meeting.  Ha!  The irony of life will getcha.  From all this I later learned chamomile releases serotonin.  And so does the homeopathic remedy.  Serotonin is produced by the body and is needed for the nerve cells and brain to function.  It's a good thing.  However, too much serotonin released can cause issues, such as a seizure, especially for someone already prone to them.  And that is what we believe this incident was - an isolated subclinical seizure.  A first time for this type of seizure to occur for Cayman.  And hopefully, now that I understand its trigger, it will be the last!  And Mr. Shunt is still thriving and was ruled out as a suspect in that day's mayhem. 

December 6th...

I took Kobe to the doctor.   His crabbiness was escalating and he was just not himself. 

Both ears infected!

He was started on an antibiotic.

December 18th...

I got a call from the preschool.  Cayman was in the nurse's office with infected eyes.  Another trip to the doctor's office confirmed she had pink eye and Kobe's ears were rechecked; one ear healed, the other worsely (is that a word?) infected.  He went on a different antibiotic, a stronger one.  And Cayman got antibiotic eye drops.    

They're lovin' the dum dum suckers they get at the doctor's office!

Later that evening Cayman spiked a high temp and went into a febrile seizure.  Her bufoon parents missed that tiny and only slightly substantial fact that she was fevering.  Had we realized that we would have immediately gone into fever reducing methods: stripping down to a diaper, cold washcloth, and Tylenol.  Instead we cuddled and consoled her, whispering comforting words in her ears.  Then her lips and fingers lost their pink hue and turned blue while she continued to seize.  We immediately administered the emergency diastat and the seizure soon ceased.  Being blue and having diastat in her now we called 911 for that extra help.  She was taken by ambulance to the local ER.  She was sleepy, naturally, after a seizure, being sick, and being given diastat will all do that to a person.  But she seemed 'normal' sleepy, not the same alarming lethargy we have seen with a shunt malfunction.  So it was not pressed to move us onward to Ann Arbor.  We went through a checklist series of tests to find the probable cause of the fever.  A chest x-ray done, checking for pneumonia (she had congestion and a cough), blood work, a flu swab, etc.  All came back normal.  And since such processes are never too speedy in a hospital we finally were discharged to leave at about 11:30 p.m. (spending about 4 hours in the ER).  Kobe, although a trooper through it all, was pushed to his toddler limits of all he could handle tiredness-wise and had become a hand full. 

The evening first started out with his enjoyment and contentment to peak under the room's curtain to say hi to all the nurses walking by. 

Then it moved to him pushing the exploratory limits to try escaping the room.

And when we shut the doors behind those curtains to keep him in, incessant crying was activated.

Who could believe with such a sweet face as that he could ever be an ornery handful, right??

December 19th...

The next day I loaded the kids up and headed an hour north to the Naturopathic Doctor's office.  I wanted to get a good preventive plan on board for Cayman with a healthy dose of boosting for immunity and tweak the anti-seizure plan.  I recall this day through a fogged memory.  My body completely exhausted and in need of rest.  And kids, despite being sick, always maintain a certain high active level.  (For the record, I did survive. *wink*)
 

December 26th...

Back to the doctor's office we returned in the middle of a snowy blizzard.  The pediatrician is just around the corner from where Mike works, which is also now only a 10 minute drive away from our home (have I mentioned how much I love living closer to these kinds of places??).  Mike took his lunch break during that appointment hour to help me with the sick kiddos. 

Kobe repurposing daddy for a jungle gym.

Cayman still had the same congested cold going on for over a week.  Kobe was still extra crabby himself with the same congested cold as Cayman and infected eyes now too.  

Cayman's cold had turned into a sinus infection and she received a script for an antibiotic.  Kobe still had both ear infected and was put on a third and different type of antibiotic as well as eye drops.

What a mess my children are!  Sweet babies.  

We're working hard to get them feeling well so we can continue the festivities of this holiday season with lots of fun memories to be made.