On the morning of September 17th, Austin awoke early and texted with his friend for a little bit while sitting at his desk on his laptop. Trevor, who is always an early riser, came in and chatted with him briefly, then went downstairs. The last Austin remembers, he was watching college football highlights on his laptop. Shortly before 7:30am, Trevor heard 3 bangs from Austin room above him. Thankfully, he went up to Austin's room to see what the noise was from. Sadly, the noise was Austin falling. Trevor found him lying on the floor of his bedroom, bleeding from lacerations on his head and mouth, and completely unconscious! Trevor tried to awake him by calling his name and poking the bottom of his foot, but when he did not respond, Trevor immediately came and woke Steve and I.
We rushed to his room and found him unconscious, breathing (abnormally), and bleeding (mostly from his mouth wound). I could not get him to regain consciousness right away. I even sternal rubbed him and pinched the sensitive skin on his inner arm hard enough to leave a bruise, but he did not awake. He became combative a few minutes later, kicking and pushing his arms out, but he was not yet conscious. We were able to eventually carry him down to the car and take him to Children's Hospital ER. He awoke 1 hour after being found down, when we were 2 blocks from the hospital. He has no memory of what happened. The last he remembered, he was sitting at his desk. He doesn't remember anything until he awoke in the car confused about where he was. This was the most terrifying hour of my entire life! Finding your child in this state is not something I would wish on my worst enemy! And the list of very bad things that were running through my doctor brain is not something I hope to ever experience again! Poor Trevor was shaking and holding back tears as we left with Austin. He felt better when we came back and praised him for his absolutely perfect response to the situation. What a trooper!
My poor beat up boy!
At the ER, Austin was seen quickly by a resident physician and an attending physician, had labs and an EKG done, and neurology was consulted due to the suspicion for this being a seizure with a significant post-ictal period. They recommended admission for further evaluation, including a head MRI and video EEG monitoring. He got his MRI done before heading up to the 8th floor for admission.
I love the little giraffe for his room - it is a children's hospital, after all!
Because he is a fall risk after his seizure, they gave him a padded helmet to wear whenever he got out of his bed. He didn't actually wear it except for this awesome photo op!
He got hooked up to the EEG and was monitored until Monday afternoon when he was discharged home. It was SO great to see his smile emerge again when he was feeling better! His headache on arrival to the ER was 8/10, got to about 5/10 by the time he was admitted and down to 0-1/10 after a dose of Tylenol and Ibuprofen. He was definitely feeling more himself again and complained only about the EEG leads itching him.
Nanny came over to stay with Sarah and Trevor while we raced Austin to the hospital. After Austin was admitted, we ran home for dinner and for me to pack an overnight bag for Austin and I. In true Nanny style, when there is stress in life, she pulls out the saved Christmas sugar cookies from the freezer! (She pulled these out when Trevor had his head MRI under anesthesia at 4 months old too!)
Before getting his EEG leads off, they did stimulation with flashing lights and with hyperventilation to see if it would make him seize again.
Before discharge, we got a cardiac echo done just to be thorough, to make sure there is no cardiac reason for him to have had a seizure. They confirmed that he does indeed have a beautiful heart!
He was just happy to get the EEG leads off!
He was discharged home on Monday evening. He is presumed to have had a seizure. The neurologist came and talked with him and examined him. He asked Austin if he had been waking up in the morning with a bitten tongue and Austin said that yes, that had occurred about every 2-3 weeks, though not in the last 6 weeks. The lightbulb went off for me at that moment. He has been seizing overnight!! We didn't know, because he would have that post-ictal recovery period while he is still in his bed and we never would witness the seizure or the post-ictal period! We know he is a VERY active sleeper, moving around in his bed all the time and twisting off his sheets, etc. We even hear him hit the wall occasionally and just figured it was him being a crazy sleeper, as usual. He has probably been having seizures!! He was sent home with a rescue medication to use if he has a seizure lasting more than 3 minutes. We ordered a video seizure monitor to alarm us when he seizes in his sleep. It was supposed to arrive with overnight shipping, but is not coming until tomorrow, so we're eager to receive it and get him monitored. For now, I dug out the old baby monitor and I don't sleep much...listening for any sounds that would hint at him having a seizure! Oh, my baby boy!
He also has a concussion from the head injuries sustained in the fall after the seizure caused him to lose consciousness. He felt better pretty quickly in the hospital, so we allowed him to go to school on Tuesday, He begged to go and was worried about getting farther behind in his classes if he missed more school. He is in 3 AP and 2 honors classes this year! He did pretty well this past week, sometimes having to leave class after about 40 minutes due to headache. His teachers are all very understanding about it, fortunately. Due to the concussion, he is also out of soccer until he can return to play via the concussion return to play protocol. He may not make it back before the end of the season, but we are just happy that he is OK and recovering! He also cannot drive for the next 3 months per state law, so we have had to reinstate our carpool for school and shift back to having 2 drivers instead of 3. I don't care about any of that, as long as my baby is going to be OK!
We are all a bit traumatized by this event and are still trying to figure out more details about what has been happening. Hopefully, we'll have more clarity once we can track his sleep and monitor for seizures. If he is still having seizures, he will go on a daily medication (Keppra) to prevent them. For now, we are just extra wary and watching him like a hawk. We have follow up with neurology in a few months as well.
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