Head whip

Will had his one year ophthalmologist check up today.  As we suspected, there is little change with his eyes.  While he doesn't like his glasses, they do a lot to correct his vision.  He should be wearing them more (::sigh::).  And for the first time ever, his ophthalmologist brought up the option of surgery to correct Will's strabismus (eye misalignment).  As the doctor explained to me, with kids who have CVI they don't usually jump right into surgery because sometimes the child has no vision at all and surgery would provide no benefit.  But its obvious to him (and everyone) that Will can see pretty well, so this eye alignment surgery would make him see even better.  We likely won't consider that for another year, though, just to give his eyes another year to correct with the glasses before going under the knife.

So that was pretty good news.  Poor Will had to have his eyes dilated, though, so he spent the rest of the day with sunglasses on to help him cope.  Thankfully he was in good spirits about the whole thing.

All in all, things with Will's health have been going well.  The Vimpat has limited him to one seizure in the past 6 weeks, which is a marked improvement over 2 every week.  He recovered well from our post-Boston head cold-a-palooza. 

Its funny how when things are going well, I find it easy to fixate on other things that don't matter when life's not going well.  So today, I had deep thoughts about whether to get a pedicure before my brother's wedding next week... should I really eat that piece of Nate's birthday cake... when am I ever going to stop biting my nails?  You know, truly important, truly life changing stuff.

And just like that, the immensely fast 180 degree head whip has occurred...

Yep, you're right in your thinking.  Tonight Will had a seizure.  A Hopkins-esque seizure.  For the second time in Will's life, I felt like I had no option but to call the ambulance.  And of course, it all happened when Nate and Otis were at the farthest point of their evening walk, and I was the only one at home.

I went in the Will's room to check on him and could tell he was having a seizure.  He was kind of alert, though, so I held off giving him the Diastat immediately in the case the seizure resolved itself.  After a couple of minutes, Will was not responding to my voice and I administered the medication.  At that moment... in an instant... the seizure got so much worse.

Will's left eye started to twitch.  And then his whole face... he grimaced like he was going to sneeze.  Then it would release, and then instantly go back to grimacing.  Repeatedly.  In no time at all, Will's hands started to twitch.  I called Nate, who started running home.  I called 911.  I was so scared.  The minutes were dragging.

After they dispatched the ambulance but before it arrived, Will took in a huge breath of spit (when he seizes he doesn't swallow).  I had him on his side to try and ensure that type of thing wouldn't happen, but it did... and he struggled through his seizure twitching to cough and clear his airway.  He was moderately successful, but his chest was rattling and his breaths were shallow.  I counted breaths for the 911 dispatcher.  The seizure finally stopped.  Nate arrived, then the ambulance, and the 911 dispatcher got off the phone with me.

The EMTs took Will's vitals.  His chest was rattling because of the spit that he aspirated and his oxygen saturation was in the low 80s (ideally, you want saturation in the high 90s).  They put him on oxygen.  He started getting irritated, but thankfully his sats rose.  We couldn't really get him to calm down, and he had some residual muscle spasms.  We decided that it was better to be safe than sorry, and the ambulance just took him to the ER. 

I know it is likely just for observation.  I know that he will be ok.  I know that you're probably tired of reading about seizures.  Trust me, I'd rather be writing about nail polish colors and craft projects myself.  But life has an uncanny way of reminding you of the things that are really important just at the moment you most need it to.