I imagine most of you know about our day last Friday, but stories tend to change as they migrate from one person to the next. Herein lies the full story:
Around 11 am on Friday Simon's teacher called Matthew to let him know that something was wrong. Simon had been painting when he stood up, dropped his paintbrush, looked at the top of the wall and stayed that way - unresponsive to voice or touch - for about five minutes. One teacher called another teacher over and then they called a third (his favorite teacher from last year). By that time, he had started to come out of the episode and sat with Teacher Laura and said "that was weird." She spent time with him and he talked to her about the book they had read the day before and how scared it had made him. About forty-five minutes passed before he relaxed. Both Matthew and I went to the school to find out what was going on but by that time he was back to regular Simon.
I called the advice nurse and she said it was probably nothing and just to watch. She thought my idea of leaving an email with his out-of-town doctor was a good one, so I did. Later Simon told Matthew that before it happened his head hurt and he said: "I wanted to take my brain out." I included that bit of information into my note and, shortly thereafter, Kaiser called and said we needed to take Simon to Emergency.
The boys picked me up at work for an evening at the hospital. Matthew and I pretended to be calm and cheerful and Simon was reflecting our attitude. He got a real kick out of explaining his feelings to every doctor and nurse who came in to ask. He told one doctor that the experience was "like I was a statue." He told another that when he eats something hot steam shoots out of his ears. They did a lot of light tests, tests on his ability to push against them with his arms, hands, feet, and legs. They took his oxygen levels and heart rate. All signs pointed to Simon being a very healthy boy.
A pediatric neurologist was called. They didn't want to do a CAT scan unless he thought it necessary. Because of the headache (which Simon reported was still a little there) he decided it was important to take a look as soon as possible. Adlai couldn't stand being awake any longer so Matthew took him home to sleep. Luckily, Grandparents Kagle were in the general vicinity and stopped by to babysit while Matthew returned to the hospital.
Simon was excited about the CAT scan until it was time to get on the table. I had to lift him up and then lay on him while the tech placed his head between the two sides of the plastic head holder. He knew he needed to be still so once he was there, he closed his eyes and the only movement he made was the involuntary tremble of his cheeks and lower lip. He squeezed my hand while the machine went back and forth over his head. It only took two minutes to complete the scan. At the end, he was clearly relieved and very, very proud. The machine looks a heck of a lot like a large donut and, since then, he has excitedly talked about being in the donut machine to all who ask.
While we waited for the results (and for Daddy to return from home), Simon and I were upgraded to an emergency room with a flat screen TV attached to a swing arm. It only had 20 channels, none of them age appropriate, so we watched five minutes of Wheel of Fortune, which Simon thought was GREAT, and ten minutes of Wife Swap, which we both found discussion worthy - if nothing else. The doctor arrived and showed us the images (at Simon's request) of Simon's perfect brain. The next step is an EKG of his head some time next week. We expect that to be normal as well. What Simon seems to have had is called an Absence Seizure:
In absence seizures, the person may appear to be staring into space with or without jerking or twitching movements of the eye muscles. These periods last for seconds, or even tens of seconds. Those experiencing absence seizures sometimes move from one location to another without any purpose. Under normal circumstances thalamocortical oscillations maintain normal consciousness of an individual, however in certain circumstances the normal pattern can become disrupted; thereby leading to an episode of absence.
Only it was a very long one and included a headache.
Apparently these things run on my side of the family. Hopefully he won't have another seizure but, if he does, he will likely grow out of them and (very hopefully) we won't have to take any action.
Simon returned home around 9 pm full of excitement from the experience and thrilled to see his Grandparents and his Cousin Brad who had just flown in from Seattle. The next morning Matthew took him out for donuts for being so brave in the "donut machine."
That was, of course, after Adlai woke up crying at 4:50 am - he and his bed completely covered in dried vomit.
Both boys were healthy Saturday (Cousin Brad came back to play) and today Simon has come down with what is, so far, a minor cold (but we still managed to have a great time at the Aviation Museum).
That, in itself, is good news but if you need more...
- Simon is number 5 on the wait list for a school we suspect he will love. (The wait list is more than one hundred strong - we entered the random lottery not expecting much.)
- Adlai is amazing at placing nesting cups in the correct order.
- We finally made tooth-brushing a family affair this weekend - now that Adlai has enough teeth.
