Michael had a long night at the hospital (he was blogging about it at 3 a.m.) and I had a long night at home, having a hard time staying asleep. My best couple of hours were after my alarm clock went off at 7 a.m. (forgot to turn it off) so I was actually rested when the phone rang at 9. It was a neighbour calling to check up on us, as another neighbour had seen the ambulance at our place yesterday morning. (Good God, was it really just yesterday morning?!)
Anyway, we all got home just before lunch today, apparently no worse for wear, although we were all tired. Jade delighted in being outside and didn’t want to come in to have lunch, so we ate it on blankets outside, basking in sunshine and +25-degree weather.
We still don’t know exactly what happened; we’ve heard a few theories, although it seems most likely that it was somehow related to the ear infection. Jade will be referred for an EEG in Vancouver, as well as a follow-up with a pediatric neurologist, and some third appointment that I can’t remember right now. Depending on the scheduling, it could take as long as three months to actually get to Vancouver for these appointments; of course, we’d rather see them done sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, Jade seems so normal again, I don’t think it will take us long to get on with normal life, either.
Despite the stress and the fear, I am so grateful for a number of things. First off, that Michael was home and right there to take charge when the seizure happened — he’s definitely the man you want to have around when a crisis happens. I will say that I think I’m generally pretty good in a crisis, myself, but it sure was great to have him here, especially with all the shuttling around we did to get stuff from home to the hospital. He was originally supposed to be leaving for Nahanni Butte on Wednesday, but had rescheduled his departure for Friday evening. After the seizure (and finding out the highway he was going to be driving on had been washed out in two places) he made arrangements to fly out on Monday, instead.
Secondly, I’m glad that I went and got Jade and put her in bed with us; sometimes I just let her stay in her bed, crying or not, until it’s really time to get up. She could have seizured all alone in her bed and I might never have known; I might have wondered when I did go get her why she was so disoriented and cranky.
I’m grateful to the paramedics, who were so professional and reassuring. I’m not given to panic and it made me smile inside when they were telling me “you did exactly the right thing” as if to soothe me; their kindness and empathy was soothing. Plus they let Jade keep the teddy bear from the ambulance — how sweet is that?
I’m grateful to Dr. Buchanan, who has an almost-two-year-old of her own. She befriended Jade right away, asked lots of questions, took plenty of time to discuss everything with us. She is so easy to relate to, I bet I’d enjoy chatting with her over a cup of tea, watching the girls play together.
And I’m grateful to all of you for your support and messages of goodwill. You have no idea how bracing and comforting you’ve been! I had a look at my stats just before starting this post, and yesterday I officially had the highest number of page views in one day, at 229 views. I doubt more than one of those views came from the extremely strange search for “why put shoes in the fridge” (yeah, really, why?); I’m betting a few of you were checking in to see how we were doing.
Despite all that, I must say I’d be glad never to have another day like yesterday. But I guess it’s part and parcel of having kids. Thank God she makes me laugh every day.
