More Than We Bargained For...

It is a good thing that I did not bet money on how Katelyn would respond to getting the electrodes stuck to her head because she did way better than I had anticipated! Of course, she was not happy about it, but after the first few minutes, she did great and no sedation was required. The nurses and doctors were all amazing throughout our stay. They brought in some toys for Katelyn, one of which was a tube with beads that sound like rain when they fall. This became her "go-to" toy whenever anyone was going to mess with her head (no pun intended). She would shout, "Beads! Beads!" and we would quickly distract her with the bead tube. They also wheeled in her very own DVD player so she could watch Dora as much as she wanted to, much to our chagrin :)

Things definitely did not go as planned from the get-go; there were some good and some bad surprises. They did allow Kevin to stay with me, which was a huge relief for me. Even with the two of us there, it was still not easy to be stuck in a tiny hospital room with a 2.5-year-old who demands 24-hour attention from Mama and Dada. The food was obviously not meant for human consumption, so that was quite disappointing. We ended up living on ice coffees and donuts for the most part since there was a Dunkin' Donuts in the building, thank God.

Our 24-hour EEG turned into an exhausting 72-hour EEG because, despite the fact that Katelyn was exhibiting concerning behaviors multiple times a day prior to hospitalization, she did not demonstrate even ONE single event while admitted. Isn't it ironic (insert sarcastic smiley face here). The neurologist wanted to be sure that he did all that he could to attempt to witness any seizure activity, but unfortunately it never occurred. Therefore, we are still not 100% sure that she is not having seizures, but it certainly is promising that she did not show any signs of seizures while under observation. We were really hoping that she would do that strange behavior, even if just to rule out that it is a seizure so we would know for the future, but the good thing is that she has not had one of those events since, so we are optimistic for the moment.

As if being in the hospital for three nights with a 2.5-year-old wasn't enough, the worst was yet to come. Shortly after we put her down for the evening on the last night, Katelyn started throwing up all over herself. Even poor Giraffe got his fair share. She continued to be sick until around 1 a.m., but then finally slept the rest of the night. The next morning, the doctor told us that they wanted to keep her for a few hours after her electrodes were removed, just to be sure that she was okay since she had vomited the night before and there was a GI bug going around the floor. Right as we were about to be discharged, the nurse checked her temp and it was 102. The doctor said that he would keep her if we chose, but we were so sick of being in that hospital that we decided to take her home. Unfortunately, she threw up all over herself in the van when we were only a few minutes from the house.

The next morning, I ended up becoming violently ill, and by that evening, Kevin was also extremely sick. Neither one of us were in any condition to take care of ourselves, let alone Katelyn, but we did what we had to do, even when she woke in the night vomiting again. Luckily, Kevin's parents were gracious enough to keep Ashley so that she would not get sick too. We finally seem to be on the mend now, and Ashley is finally home with us after being at Grammy and Papa's for a week.

So, all in all, it certainly was not a dream vacation, and we didn't get any concrete answers, but at least it was memorable. I'm sure we will look back and laugh at this some day.

Giraffe and Dada got "hats" too...

Katelyn lined up her animals and played with balloons...

With Mama when we arrived/with Dada on the last day...