Epilepsy?

Several weeks ago, I picked the boys up from school on Friday afternoon, and while packing up his cubby for the weekend, read the "daily sheet" from his preschool teacher, who wrote that Ben spent a good part of the day crying and upset, and not at all interested in participating in his classroom activities. I didn't make much of the comment, but felt badly for him that he'd had a bad day at school.

I took the boys home, we made some dinner, took our shower, and signed on to Skype to talk to my parents. As we chatted, Ben ran around and played -- until he stopped suddenly at the end of the couch and started to cry. I asked him what was the matter, and he told me that he didn't feel well. Before I could ask another question, he fell to the floor (right on the Christmas tree!) and had his second seizure. "Oh my God, he's having a seizure!" were the words that came out of my mouth as I ran over and grabbed Ben off the floor (so much for the instructions from the neurologist about what to do in the event of a seizure), and then searched frantically for my cell phone. I couldn't find my phone, so grabbed my work Blackberry, and dialed 911. As I tried to remember my address for the 911 Operator (which is why I ordered home phone service the next day), my poor parents watched helplessly on Skype. Ben was unconscious for a very short time -- probably 10 or 15 seconds -- and was awake and crying by the time I was on the phone with 911.

Within several minutes, I could see the flashing lights outside, and the police and paramedics were at the house. Ben was still crying and upset, stating repeatedly that his head was hurting, and Sam was very nervous about what was happening. The paramedics loaded Ben onto the stretcher and we went and sat in the back of the ambulance waiting for the boys' dad to arrive. While sitting in the ambulance, Sam commented to me that his shoes were too small and uncomfortable. The EMT looked at him and laughed -- and said that maybe Mommy was a little stressed, I had put his sneakers on the wrong feet. Oops!

Before long, we were all on our way to the hospital, with Ben and Mommy in the ambulance as I recounted the details of the event to the EMT, as well as Ben's past history with the grand mal seizure.

The trip to the hospital was uneventful, Ben was stable, and his neurologist is not at the children's hospital. In hindsight, it was probably not necessary to call 911 or to even take Ben to the hospital -- but in that moment, when something is so clearly wrong, the only thing I can think of is getting someone to my house IMMEDIATELY to help my baby. After four hours with two 3-year olds in an ER at 11pm on a Friday night, Ben was discharged with instructions to follow-up with his neurologist. We got home, and the boys obviously asked what was for dinner. I fed them, and then hoped they would go to bed. Wrong. They needed milk and a story, too. As Sam picked "Pokey Little Puppy" off the shelf, I sighed to myself, the story is probably my second least favorite of the collection (you all know my least favorite, the creepy book with the mom snuggling her grown-up son in the middle of the night!), and one of the longest. Ben slept in my bed with me that night, after waking up screaming, which left me in a panic that something was seriously wrong.

We went to his neurologist a few days later, I told her everything that had happened, and she said that the diagnosis of "epilepsy" is a generic diagnosis that refers to a person who has had 2 unprovoked seizures. Ben fits that description. He had a second EEG to test brain activity, and that was thankfully normal, so we will not start a daily anti-seizure medicine, but simply given Ben an anti-seizure medication if he shows the symptoms he's exhibited prior to both seizures. (And Ben and Mommy got to go on a P*nera lunch date, just the two of us, and shopping to buy Sammy a present for Christmas!)

I am thinking about buying him a medic alert bracelet. I will have to find another equally ostentatious bracelet for Sam ...