Lincoln's Big Adventure

Wednesday we had Riley spend the night. Everything went well. Coralee loved playing with Riley for an extended play date and the other kids had fun playing with her, too. Thursday morning they all played in Lauramae's room with the kitchen. I barely saw them all morning. Teresa came to get Riley around 10 and we talked about going to IKEA. Got everyone dressed and loaded up to go. Lincoln pitched a royal fit because he didn't get to ride with Teresa but eventually he decided to get in the van and get buckled. Then I realized I needed to get gas.

Eventually we made it to IKEA, wound through the store and got to the cafe. Woohoo for kids eat free. We payed $6 for all 4 of us to eat. Everything was going well then Lincoln had a seizure. His eyes got big, he screamed a muffled scream and started twitching. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen. All that lasted maybe 30 seconds - a minute but he wouldn't make eye contact with me and his eyes were rolling back in his head. Teresa asked me if she should call 911. I kept looking at him trying to see if he'd snap out of it but he didn't. She called and I kept trying to keep him awake. I'd never seen anything like that before and it completely freaked me out that he wouldn't look at me. One lady stopped and helped me try to keep him awake. Eventually the 911 operator said that as long as he was breathing fine, it was okay for him to go to sleep. Then the same lady helped corral Lauramae who somehow ended up walking around instead of sitting in her seat. I don't remember much about Coralee but I do remember telling her brother would be okay. She told me later that she was worried about her brother and her tummy hurt. She also prayed that wouldn't happen to her or Lauramae. The firefighters arrived very quickly.... it didn't even seem like a long time to me in the moment. They asked me about what happened & checked his vitals. By the time they did all of that, the ambulance was there. They got him wheeled out to the ambulance and tried to get him hooked up to more stuff. He was pretty difficult. He spent the majority of the ride drifting in and out of sleep. The EMS guy said that he'd feel like he'd run an marathon after the seizure. I felt like I got more information from him than everyone at the hospital put together. In the mean time, Teresa had called Ken. Well, she called David who called Ken. We couldn't get that information in the craziness. Reminds me I need to teach Coralee our contact numbers ASAP. I also left my phone at home to add to the craziness. Ken beat us to the hospital and was waiting in the room. Again, they tried to hook Lincoln up to everything and he was uncooperative. That earned him getting his temperature taken rectally. As he said, he didn't like them "digging in his body". He really hated the oxygen sensor they had on his big toe. Pretty much as long as the nurses were out of the room, he was fine. Ken sat in the bed with him and we watched really bad cartoons on TV. The doctor came in and basically said "sometimes this happens". He didn't have a fever so it didn't look like a febrile seizure. She ordered a CAT scan for him and we spent more time waiting (the whole ordeal was 3-4 hours so not bad for the ER). It was funny, as soon as the lady came to do the CAT scan, he perked up. She was a pretty, tall blond and I wonder if that had anything to do with his sudden cooperation. He happily rode in the wheel chair and did everything he was asked to do. They had a projector that put tiny stars all over the ceiling and then he had another one sitting on his chest while they did the scan to keep him still & looking at the stars in the donut. We got back to our room and waited to hear from the doctor. Within a short period of time, the nurse came back in (suddenly Lincoln liked her better, too), gave us our discharge instructions, a popsicle for Lincoln & we were on our way. I couldn't make appointments with the pediatrician or the neurologist because their offices were closed for New Years. We went to get the girls from Teresa's and then back to IKEA to get the van. In the mean time, Ken had talked to a friend from our Sunday School class to let him know everything was fine. They were meeting his wife at Mighty Fine for dinner so we joined them. Lincoln ran around on the playground like nothing had every happened (wires attached because he refused to let the nurse or us take them off). He was a little less difficult at bed time than usual. So far he's seemed perfectly okay. I'm a little less freaked out about the potential of it happening again because I know what to expect now. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing the neurologist even if they just say, "sometimes this happens". All this being said, it is amazing how God orchestrated all the details. First of all, I wasn't by myself. We go and do things all the time just the 4 of us. I said something about that to Ken and he said, "you would have been the chase vehicle behind the ambulance". I'm truly thankful that I got to take that ride with my boy. I'm thankful for Teresa being there. She has to be one of the most calm people I know and that definitely helped. Knowing the girls were taken care of was a big relief to me. Secondly, we weren't at home. I can't remember how far away the nearest fire station is to us but it isn't close. I think we were in the ambulance within 5-10 minutes of him having the seizure. My timing might be messed up but it was very quick. The other thing was we're usually back home this time of year. We spent the week before Christmas with family instead. The closest children's hospital is in Houston. I don't know what they would have done with/for us there in Beaumont or Lake Charles. For that third reason, we decided to stay home instead of making the marathon drive to Lake Charles today for my family's Christmas get together. I'm bummed to miss it but I didn't want the extra stress of a lack of sleep on my sweet boy.