Week 188: Purple gloves

April 9, 2022

Hello. Hi.
This week is all about my sick toddler, just to warn you. I haven’t even done any jokes.
[Tuesday] My heart left my body and went to A&E in an ambulance today. Baby C had another seizure. Every time it is different. This time it lasted a really long time (40 minutes) and it took a lot of drugs to get it to stop. Lachie went to hospital with him and I just sat in the silent house and stared at the wall until I had to go pick up the big one from nursery.
I was actually on a video call with my colleagues when it happened. It was probably quite traumatic for everyone concerned when Lachie came into the frame with a seizing toddler and I just bailed on the call.
A thing paramedics do is write important details of a case with a biro on their purple gloves. They all do this. It makes a lot of sense. Gloves stay on for the duration of the emergency, and then they come off and go in a bin. A fresh set ready for a new set of vitals on the next call.
Baby C was due to visit the hospital on Wednesday for an MRI anyway. So he was already there and already had a lot of teeny tiny cannulas held in by plasters with pictures of teddies on. The teddies have jumpers that have 3M written on them.
The MRI came back clear so in terms of diagnosis as to why C has had nine seizures in nine months, the final route to check is genetic testing for disorders linked to epilepsy.
We got out of hospital on Thursday afternoon. C couldn’t really walk after the seizure. We think that’s some residual muscle weakness from the 40 minutes of tensing and relaxing his muscles. He’s getting a bit better now.
To manage C’s seizures he now has to have daily medication. I have a lot of feelings about altering his brain chemistry, but ultimately it’s how we’re gonna keep him safe.
Thanks to everyone who has listened to me this week. You’ve all been really important to me and I appreciate it.