The next day was V's third birthday – very well spent. He thoroughly enjoyed it. He got his favourite food – dosas – and some friends came over to spend the day. I was watching him like a hawk though based upon my discussion with the pediatrician. We decided to keep him home till the 5th of January which is when he had his EKG scheduled. I was off work so it was a blessing. On the 5th I took him to the clinic for his EKG which was uneventful. On the way back I remember stopping at the Safeway along the way to pick up a few things. We then reached home and I was making dosas for his lunch while talking on the phone with a friend. Suddenly he appeared saying he had peed while on his way to the bathroom and it was all wet and he was very upset that I wasn't coming to help him right then. So I hung up, took him to get a change of clothes. I came back to the kitchen. He was still upset and as I turned from the gas, saw him having a full blown seizure in front of my eyes. Now, I hadn't ever seen one, I didn't know what needed to be done, I kept thinking that the first one had been a completely freak case. Now, I see my little three-year old going through what I have only heard about – limbs shaking and collapsing in front of me. I again imagined the worst. I yelled for my husband, who, those days, used to work from home – in the garage. He came charging in and said lets go. In the meantime, I stuck my finger in, thinking that he was going to throw up and be ok just like the previous time but of course, it didn't help. He was out and I had no clue. It wasn't so much that my finger was stuck and was hurting – it was that the seconds were passing and he was out to the world. We had the presence of mind to check that he was breathing.
Again, the two of us in the car, on the way to the clinic. R was happy in school – bless her – she had no clue with what was going on. V came around sometime soon after we got into the car and wanted to sleep – I thought if he sleeps, he never will wake up, not realizing that he had to sleep – that is the body's reaction. By the time we reached the clinic it was hard to keep him awake. His regular pediatrician was busy – so another one saw us. She reassured us that everything seemed fine and he was fine and that it is fine to let him sleep. None of what she said was comforting. On the way back we stopped at the daycare – both our kids had been there since they were babies and with no family around they truly were our family. They had taken excellent care of both the children and it was a second home for them. We had decided to keep V home for the next ten days. I could barely say anything to the director and the office staff member – two other people besides several others at the daycare/preschool who were our lifeline and who we feel indebted to for all of their support. They understood – asked me – is this epilepsy? I was like – what does that mean? What does anything mean? It didn't make any sense.
V was drowsy but fine upon reaching home. His pediatrician called later in the afternoon, apologized for not being around and said that given that he had had two seizures, he should be started on medication. The one she was prescribing was Tegretol which had been around for a long time. The long term effect was a bad liver – so do we live with a bad liver in the long run or let him have seizures? The answer was obvious as far as we were concerned. He had his first dose of the medication that night. We were told to come in and get his blood tested for the medication level periodically.
That day was so confusing – I mean, is this something we would live with? Is this something he would outgrow? How long would he need to take the medication? How long would this continue? Being the optimist that I am, I assumed that he was going to be just fine.
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