Yesterday was the second scariest day of my life, following the day of Jude’s initial brain tumor diagnosis. After I got home from work yesterday, Andy went to buy some new running shorts and the boys and I were playing in the front yard. Then Jude and Levi decided to jump in the SUV and pretend to drive while Asher explored the vehicle for the first time. Out of no where, Jude had trouble communicating. He was trying to ask me where the music button was on the vehicle’s radio, but was unable to remember the word “music” but finally spit it out with a really bad pronunciation. He started hitting his own head in a way to say that he felt so dumb that he could not formulate a sentence. My mind was racing. Within seconds I was thinking that maybe he was just tired, maybe he was being a drama king and pretending to have a seizure (which he has never done) or maybe he was actually having a seizure. I asked him who I was and he was barely able to say “mama.” I asked him a second time and he couldn’t say it. I asked him if he was serious and indicated he was. I asked him if I should call the hospital and he indicated yes. I made sure he was safely seated in the driver’s seat of the car and ran and grabbed my cell phone and called 911. I told the dispatcher our address, that we needed an ambulance and his medical history and that he was having an absence seizure. The same female police officer who responded to his scary seizure that diagnosed his first brain tumor in 2010 arrived. Even though I told the dispatcher we were in the garage with the garage door open, the cop went to the front door. I yelled to her our location. After awhile she figured it out. I told her he was having an absence seizure and needed oxygen. She asked what an absence seizure was. I called Andy and told him that Jude was having a seizure and that an ambulance was on the way. The ambulance arrived and the paramedics told me to bring Levi and Asher to the neighbor’s. I hustled across the street and passed off my 2 precious little ones with barely an explanation to some great neighbors and the parents of one of Jude’s best friends. I figured that the ambulance would be loaded with Jude and ready to go. I was just shocked when I could not find Jude or anyone in or around the ambulance. I ran in the house and found Jude running loose while having his absence seizure. The paramedics said that he had wanted to grab some things. He came carrying a box of Angry Bird toys and one of the paramedics was carrying a giant stuffed animal that he recently received. I think they must not have believed me that he was having a seizure or they would not have never let him run loose like that. By the time he was loaded into the ambulance, he was unable to make any noises. The paramedic asked him his name and he did not respond. She has me if he was always so shy. I said that he was unable to communicate because of the seizure he was having. I still don’t think she believed me. She checked his blood sugar with a finger prick and the boy didn’t flinch. We arrived in the ER and it was deju vu. He was unresponsive and drooling out of one side of his mouth, and unable to breathe on his own. They administered anti-seizure meds and helped him breathe with a bag. They cut his new shirt from Grandma Forbes off him. His seizure ended up lasting probably 45 minutes or so and then we got out of the trauma room and went to a regular ER room. Andy and I then noticed that his head, by the incision, was really swollen and squishy so I interrupted the ER doctor to tell him. I wanted them to do an MRI while Jude was still nonresponsive to check for brain swelling. I learned that their MRI was down and that they did not feel comfortable sending him to Abbott since a team would have to go with him. They did yet another CT scan and he was exposed to yet more radiation. The CT scan revealed the appropriate amount of swelling under the circumstances. He then went into a sleep for about 5 hours until they started hooking him up for his EKG to check for seizure activity. It took the technician about an hour and a half in the middle of the night to hook Jude up. That was annoying for both Jude and me, but a big relief to see Jude responsive and getting back to normal. We are in intensive care still.