Seizure

A week ago Tuesday, both Anna and Rachael were sick. Anna threw up 4 times the night before. Patrick changed her sheets 3 times. We think she was so tired that she just slept through the last one. Rachael threw up after she woke up around 7 a.m. luckily she was in the bathroom, unluckily she missed the toilet. So, after a morning of Pedialyte and saltines the girls seemed to be doing better. I started making lunch. Then Rachael started crying and coming that her stomach felt full. She came to me and was holding my leg and crying. Then she fell over. I thought she had lost her balance, but she was having a seizure. Her whole body went rigid and gray. She lost consciousness and could only breathe in explosive bursts spaced alarmingly far apart. After an eternity, she relaxed and a few seconds later was able to focus her eyes on me and start crying. The whole thing probably only lasted about 30 secs or so. I laid her down and she slept for an hour. She has done this at least twice before when she was under a year old and right around a year. We took her to the ER the first time. They checked her out and couldn't find anything wrong so sent us home saying to come back if she had so many within a certain time period or for longer than a certain amount of time. She did not have a fever with any of them.

I took her to the doctor later and he said he thought it might be what's called a breath-holding seizure. I looked it up later and it is an involuntary breath holding causing a lack of oxygen that leads to a seizure as opposed to faulty electrical activity in the brain that is part of a typical seizure disorder. To rule out the latter, the doctor ordered a sleep-deprived EEG. 

The night before Rachael's EEG, I showed her some clips from youtube of kids getting EEG's so she'd know what to expect. Patrick woke her up at 3 a.m. They played until about 6 when I took over. She was having a hard time staying awake, especially in the car ride to the hospital. You can see how tired she was in this first picture.

She did so well. She didn't cry and wasn't scared at all.

Here, she is all hooked up except for the heart monitor. You can see how many wires there were. She's holding a mirror so she can see them too.

After she was all hooked up, the tech had her do a couple things and then try to fall asleep. It didn't take her too long. When she was really asleep, he woke her up slightly and then flashed a strobe light in her face in different patterns. Here she is after it was all over. She was pretty tired still.

It will be a while before we get the results of the test.