Andy & Jessica

Asher is 9-1/2 months old and too mobile for his own good.  Tonight while Jude was signing thank you cards at the table, Levi was roaming around the main level of the house, Andy was on the computer in the family room by the back deck, and I was unloading the dishwasher, Asher disappeared.  Asher usually finds me when I’m trying to get stuff done and I was a little suspicious that he hadn’t come crawling up to me.  I asked Andy if he was watching Asher.  He said, “No.  Am I supposed to be?”  I said, “Yes.”  He found Asher and yelled to me to, “Come quick.”  Little Asher had managed to open the screen door and escape onto the deck.  He was splashing in a puddle that was created by a recent rainfall.  It’s times like those that I am bummed that our video camera battery is always dead.

The cutest things come out of Jude’s mouth and I always like to record them.  He’s getting so upset about all the pokes.  He asked recently, “Why do I get 2 pokes in a row?  Why can’t I get 2 birthdays in a row?”

Jude to Andy when Andy was protesting carrying both Jude and Levi at the same time, “But, Mommy can carry 3 boys and a laundry basket at the same time!”

This morning as I was getting ready for work he asked, “Did you miss your bus?”  When I said that I hadn’t he said, “Can you miss your bus?”  Poor little guy just wants more time with his Mama.

Levi, on the other hand, is just starting to talk more.  He’s so cute and every time he sees a bus, he yells out excitedly, “Mommy buh!”  Every bus is Mommy’s “buh” to him.

We were discharged from the hospital for the 3rd time since Jude’s brain surgery. We learned that his anti-seizure medication level was below normal range at the time of the seizure. We may be partially to blame (which I feel guilty about) since he missed his dose of Keppra the night before the seizure since he took a 13 hour nap and I didn’t wake him up to give him his evening dose and the prior day he had put pretzels in his juice with the Keppra in it and it’s quite possible that they soaked up some of the medicine. A neurologist increased his Keppra dose by 1/3 and hopefully that will help prevent more scary seizures.

This recent seizure has really spooked me. We now will see a neurologist for seizures and he will be prescribed a medicine that we can give him at home to stop the seizure. Jude will not be able to do anything without careful monitoring, the neurologist said. The seizures come on so quickly and one minute he is playing and having the time of his life and the next minute he cannot formulate a sentence. I am not convinced that anyone besides me or Andy would be able to diagnose Jude’s seizures so we will have to keep him on a short leash.

Although it is so difficult to live with such uncertainty about Jude’s future, I am just so thankful to have him. A family a couple doors down from us in the intensive care unit lost their son today due to drowning. I hope I never have to walk in their shoes.

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.

Jude has been going too strong since his surgery. His friends from across the street came over to play at 4 p.m. yesterday, just as I was about to lay down with Jude for a nap. I didn’t want to break his heart so I let them play for a couple hours. Then at 6 p.m., I insisted that Jude take a nap. He slept until 7 a.m. this morning. He told me when he woke up that he had a “really long dream.”

Andy ran his first 5K race yesterday morning, while I was contemplating whether to take Jude to the ER for a CT scan and thinking that Andy should run his little butt home.  Overall, the timing of Andy’s run couldn’t have been much worse, although I was proud of him for following through on his plan to go from “couch to K.”

We were discharged from the ER today after about 4 hours and after the CT scan revealed nothing unusual. They gave Jude some medicine to stop him from vomitting and he’s been active and doing great ever since. It was great to get to go home and not get admitted once again. Another scare!