our eventful night

Monday April 2nd started out an odd day. I went over to
Washington High School to register Paige for  high school. And while I was happy that she got into Wash -- I was still registering Paige for high school...
>sigh<
I still hadn't fully processed the whole thing and we all had an uneventful evening -- all the little ones were in bed and Paige was just going too after finishing up her homework.
It was around 10:20pm

Paige appears in our room with a look of horror on her face -- and quietly says to us, "You guys have to come right now. I don't think DJ is breathing"
Both Mike and I fly down the stairs into his room.
DJ won't open his eyes or respond, but he is breathing.

We have no idea what is going on.

Mike tells his dad to call 911.
Somehow Paige tells us she heard him coughing, and then making a loud gurgling sound so she got out of bed to check on him.
By the time Vic walks downstairs to open the door for the paramedics, they are here.
DJ is still not responding.
Paige is upstairs with Mikey and I think Vic went up there too.
Around this time DJ is coming out of it enough to be terrified of all the commotion and recognize Mike.

He keeps crying/yelling "Dad. Dad. Dad"
and fighting off the paramedics who are trying to start an IV.
Mike had to hold him down.
I think there were about 8 paramedics and firefighters in the room.

At this time they tell us it was probably a seizure.
Which is a relief to Mike since he thought DJ had a stroke.

They get DJ strapped into a sitting gurney and carry him downstairs and outside where he was transferred to another gurney, screaming for Mike the entire time.

I will tell you, nobody is better in a situation than my husband. He always knows how to handle things and he makes everyone feel secure in that knowledge. He knows how to fix anything that breaks -- or who to call if he can't (and he knows when he can't) He knows how to treat people. He's the guy that all the women at the market ask to reach things for them off the top shelf. He is that confident in everything he does.
But at this moment in time, with DJ calling for him, he can barely hold it together.

I'm sitting in the ambulance with DJ and one other guy who is asking me questions. DJ is still scared, but he is there.
He keeps asking, "Mama, may I please not ride in the ambulance? Mama, may I please just stay home?"
When the paramedic guy asks DJ if he has blurry vision and DJ response is,
"Well, it depends. I don't have my glasses RIGHT now. And I need my glasses or things are blurry. And I think I left my glasses on my nightstand. But usually, WITH my glasses I do not have blurry vision"
I figured he was okay.

In the ER.
Hooked up to everything. DJ is fine. Explained to him what was going on. He is just thrilled to be watching iCarly...
I'm texting Paige. She is quite upset. She's in our bed with Mikey who won't go to sleep. Kelly never woke up for any of it --
Paige is beating herself up wishing she had gotten out of bed to check on DJ sooner. We call her and both Mike and I reassure her that she did exactly the right things. She wants to talk to her brother to make sure he is okay.
DJ has a CT scan.
We are asked to explain about his ear implant, but everything looks great.

I did know a little bit about seizures, having read about febrile seizures when the kids were babies. I knew that the seizures might be scary, but usually weren't harmful. That people got hurt by hitting their head or something during them -- not from the actual seizures.
The ER doctor explained that DJ might never have another one in his lifetime and that the type he had (what used to called grand mal) didn't happen frequently, so go home, and check in with his pediatrician tomorrow.
We were home by 1:30am

Mike brought the air mattress up and we set it up in our room.
We are all exhausted, but DJ was still thrilled to be up so late -- we all stayed up for awhile. Talking, getting Paige to bed and just trying to get things situated for the morning.
Mike and I both fell asleep right before 4am and DJ was on his way, but the tv was still on.

Close to 4:30 I hear this awful gurgling, choking sound and yelled for Mike just as he heard it too. We both rush over, Mike gets DJ on his side. His eyes are closed and he is completely tensed up. I keep my hand on him, talking to him, as Mike calls the ER.
The doctor tells Mike to wait about 15 minutes and slowly try to wake DJ. If we can't wake him, bring him back to the ER. If he seems okay, call his doctor in the morning -- he will most likely have to be admitted to the hospital for tests.
Twenty minutes later, DJ is in our bed with me (and Mikey) and happy to chat about Dances with Wolves, which we are now watching.
About an hour later, I fall asleep. Mike stays up with DJ.
Mike wakes the girls up for school, they get ready -- he calls DJ's school and wakes me up so I can call Dr. Lee's office while he takes Paige and Kelly to school.
DJ is still awake, so I turn off the tv and tell him to try and sleep. He is out instantly.
I call the office right at 8:30, it's still the service. I call again, the same.
I am sitting up in bed, facing the pillows -- DJ and Mikey are both asleep.
I see DJ's mouth twitch in an odd way.
I move closer to him, between the boys.
DJ's entire body tensed up. His face was pulled and his eyes were wide open and blood shot. He had one arm pulled in tight to his body and the other extended.
His lips started turning blue.
I started to feel panicked -- I looked at the clock, it was almost two full minutes.
All of a sudden his body released the lock on itself.

I knew it would be at least 15 minutes before he would come to. I called the doctors office. They said to take DJ to UCSF emergency room.
As soon as Mike returned from dropping off the girls, I got dressed, got Mikey dressed -- and DJ was still out.
I took him much longer to come back this time. He was very wobbly and was sick in the car right as we pulled up to the hospital. His speech was still slurred when the doctor came in to check on him.

Meanwhile, Mikey decides he is going to be
The Happiest Toddler Ever
and is making me insane. He is playing peek-a-boo with nurses and running in circles and high-fiving everyone.
>sigh<
I do not have the patience for one more person telling me how cute he is...
Thankfully, a friend came and picked him up. (Thank you Misty!) She also picked up Miss K and brought them to her own kid's dentist appointment -- and back to her house. Mike O signed Paige out of school and dropped her off.
Our 7 hours in the ER would have been so much harder if we didn't have such great friends.

So, DJ slept (while we watched every twitch) for about 45 min and then was woken up by the pediatric neurologist who needed to examine him.

Then he was hooked up to an EEG

and he wouldn't go back to sleep.
He did make me take a picture of his brain though --

The neurology team that came in following the EEG explained that they were going to treat the 3 seizures like they were 1 big one. That the type they think he had usually show up on both sides of the brain not just the right side like DJ's does. And the type they think he had usually starts at a much younger age.
They want to do an MRI, and see someone in the neurology clinic since they really still have no idea what is going on with him.
We go home.

I call for the MRI, it's not in their records... the person who can help me is out of town... The neurology clinic people call on Thursday and the earliest they can see him is May 1st.
ok
But The doctor might want to see him earlier after she looks at his chart. They will call me.
ok
They call me Friday late afternoon. They want to see him first thing Monday morning. Please call their office if he has another seizure.

what? That doesn't freak me out or anything.

Monday morning. More tests. The doctor THINKS he has benign rolandic epilepsy, BUT it isn't showing up correctly on the EEG. She called it a "developmental" epilepsy. But he has no family history, isn't the age that these things start (6-8yr) and the abnormalities on his brain are different than in benign rolandic epilepsy.
...ok
Since his CT scan was good, they'll wait on the MRI, but they want another EEG. One while he is sleeping.
BUT it could very well be something else going on in his brain,
they don't know.
The seizures might happen once a month, but maybe more often. He should outgrow them within 5 years.
The good news being they will probably only happen in his sleep.
They gave me a medication to stop them if they last for more than 5 minutes.
Now we are just waiting to hear from them to schedule another EEG.


He is back at school today.

freakishly fast

I am sitting in the doctors office. It's a pretty big waiting area and it set up very nice. I have been here only once before. As I am waiting for my name to be called, I can't help but notice that everyone else sitting here is kinda old. I mean old, like in their 70's. Like, all of them have someone younger (closer to my age) waiting with them.
(I know you think I am exaggerating about their age, but I'm not)
I don't know why, but this makes me feel so sad. I almost start to tear up -- but then I force myself to stop. The last thing I want to be doing is crying in here.
Am I upset because they seem so frail?
Or am I feeling sorry for myself because it is so lame that I am sitting here too?

I have never had a regular doctor, never needed one. When I was in my 20's I would usually see a nurse practitioner and more than once they mentioned that I had a fast heart rate. Low blood pressure and a fast heart rate. They often even asked if I was nervous to be there -- I wasn't.
So I knew this was unusual, but I never really thought about it.
It was remarked upon during my pregnancies, but again, it was in passing, until the last one.

My experience with OBs spans (omg!) 14 years. I had the same one for the first two, and hardly any tests. I mean, I even only had one ultrasound with DJ!

me with DJ :)

 I know they must check for more things now than they did then, because it couldn't just be my AGE as to why I had many more test and ultrasounds with the last two --

hrmmmfph

With Mikey, I was um, turning 40 (for the first time) and I think I had a bazillion ultrasounds and doctor appointments. Since I went so many times and had my freakishly fast heart rate noticed by the same people, they made me check it out with another doctor for an EKG.
Those guys said it was fast.
That was it.

Now for the first time ever, I have a regular doctor, not just an OB and she is all up in arms over my tachycardia. She gives me another EKG and brings in another doctor. They are both stumped. Nobody knows why I have this, but they pretty much want me to stop doing things that might get my heart rate up until they can get me in to see a specialist.
I have to admit, they sort of scared me. I stopped walking to the park, going to get coffee and even just strolling with Mikey while Kelly was at ballet.

Did you know that when it's something non life threatening, it takes FOREVER to get an appointment to see a cardiologist. Like months --
so after waiting a good long time, I go in to see this newest doctor, have another EKG and guess what?

I have a really fast heart rate.

He does explain that it's one of two things, I either have a weakness in my heart, that I have had my whole life or an unexplained fast heart rate.

Seriously. He said "unexplained".

Now I get to have an echocardiogram,
and I get to feel awful sitting in the waiting room waiting to go in and have it done.

And THEN I get to wait another week to see the doctor again -- just so he can explain to me how my freakishly fast heart is (most likely) cannot be explained.

I just want to be done with this.

gaga

The big kids are always saying things to Mikey to get him to repeat it back to them. He did say all their names first, but wouldn't say Mama for the longest time. His pediatrician said she had a theory about it -- she had seen it before in other babies that hit their milestones early, so she thinks that to them they are aware that Mama IS. Mama is everything, so they don't need a name. Sounded good to me! Once he started saying it, he only said it when he was crying... but he says it all the time now.
He says Paige in a French accent, "PAyJuh-ha" which is pretty cute.
We get to DJ's school and he starts yelling "DJ" at the top of his lungs.

He has said "gaga" for the longest time. The kids will get him going and they are all saying "goo goo gaga" back and forth in a goofy sort of way. I always thought it was pretty funny to have him say it.

Mikey loves Lady Gaga's music. Paige shows him the videos on her iPod all the time. We will put it on in the car for him and soon they are all singing to it.
The other morning I was trying to get ready and I needed to distract him from throwing all the clean clothes out of the basket (not a fan of that trick) so I put a video on the computer.
He points, "Gaga".
huh?
We are driving home and he is yelling at Paige, pointing to her iPod, "Gaga!"
ok.

Is this what he has meant this whole time and we just misunderstood? Does he think we are just morons?

I don't know, but it is from the baby that calls every ball a football --

well baby

I love well baby visits! I am not so thrilled with the shot part, but, oh -- how I love to tell the pediatric staff how awesome my kids are ~ No, really, I love to see how big they are and have people who know what they are talking about reassure me that they are fine.
(and tell me how awesome they are)

Well, Miss Kell had her 5 year old check up, which included all the paperwork for Kindergarten. Very exciting!
My little Sasquatch is 44 inches tall and 50 lbs.

I so love having both my girls be the extreme opposite of each other. Kelly is almost always the tallest of her peers, where Paige was/is always the smallest! At 5 years old, Paige was still wearing a size 4 -- I am now buying Kelly a size 7! (well, really pulling out Paige's old size 7's from the back garage)

Kelly's vision came back 20/50 and now we have to take her to the pediatric opthamologist. 
Okay.
I didn't get glasses until 5th grade. Same with DJ. Kelly's uncle Bob got his when he was 6 years old.
If she needs glasses, she needs glasses... better to get them before she starts Kindergarten.
The funny thing is, Paige used to beg for glasses!

At the same visit, Mikey had his 18 month check up. Going to see the doctor is not his favorite thing to do, but he cries only if you try to lay him down on the table.
Mama's Boy is 31 inches and 26 lbs and his Dad thinks he is too short...
{sigh}

Mikey has always had a loud fluttering sound in his heart. Kelly had it too, but outgrew it. Yesterday the pediatrician said that now Mikey's is a little louder than she "likes to hear", so he is going to have a pediatric cardiologist check it out.
First available appointment is in three weeks.
(do they do this on purpose to see how much stress a mother can take?)

I did forget to ask if it was unusual that Mikey could do the wooden shape puzzles. I don't remember any of the other ones doing it at a year and a half, but I could be wrong --

Oh, and yes I do still like taking Paige and DJ to their well baby visits, but they make me call it a well child visit!

busy week

The big kids are starting back up with their after school programs. Both Paige and DJ are in summer programs that also have tutoring/electives during the school year. Paige was in the same one that DJ is in now. They both worked very hard to get into them and enjoy them very much, even though we as a family don't get much of a summer break!
DJ is at Breakthough and Paige is at Summerbridge
Mike's brother Bob also did Summerbridge (um... 30 years ago!) and went to University HS, so we are crossing our fingers that Paige can get into there too.

Kelly will be starting Kindergarten this Fall and I already had all her paperwork ready, when I found out that there were openings at SF Public Montessori. Really know nothing about the school, so we will all be going to their Open House this week. Paige went to a Montessori preschool, so I do know a little -- and I think Kelly could do very well in this type of school setting.

Throw in a doctor appointment, swim lessons x2, ballet and short days for DJ and we have a fun filled week!