16Sep07 - Back in Hospital

I think I was tempting fate with yesterday's blog. We were woken this morning at 7:00am by grunting noises coming from Lucy's bedroom. She had been vomiting and was having a fit. At first we thought that she may have just been ill but soon realized that it was more serious. We gave her the rescue medicine (midazolam) we had been given after Lucy's last major fit at the beginning of July. This was supposed to control the convulsions within a few minutes and when it didn't we phoned 999. We were much more relaxed this time and it was not long before the ambulance arrived. Lucy was still having convulsions but they were less dramatic. The paramedics immediately decided to take her to A&E and two minutes later Dawn and Lucy were on their way to the hospital. Lucy had probably been fitting for between 30mins and an hour at this point but we can't say for sure. We also don't know what brings it on or whether the vomiting causes the fits or vica verca. I stayed behind to get Joshua up, explain what had happened, feed and dress him before following the girls to the hospital. When Lucy got to A&E the first job was to put in an intravenous cannula to take fluid and give medication. It is quite a difficult procedure especially in small children as their veins are small and tricky to find. As always the first one in her foot didn't work, so they put one in her left arm. This failed soon afterwards so they had to put one in her right arm as well. She is going to have very sore arms.

Lucy was still fitting so they administered a dose of Lorazepam which is a drug used for rapid sedation. The down side is that the sedation can be very prolonged. After waiting to see if this would do the trick they still suspected that Lucy was displaying irregular movement and so decided to load her with Phenytoin. This eventually did the trick and completely knocked her out. Last time she had a fit it took Lucy a good 24 hours to come round.


Joshua also had a major set back, his gameboy battery ran out just after we got there. He was brilliant though, very brave and very protective of his little sister.


After the A&E staff were happy that Lucy had stabilised she was transferred to childrens ward although there was some debate wether or not there were any spare beds. We were greeted with "Hello again" which tells you that you spend too much time there. Lucy was seen to very quickly and it wasn't long before the IV was giving her fluids and glucose. Blood samples have been sent away for testing and the result of the chest xray should be available this afternoon. She was given antibiotics to cover any possible infection and it was decided to keep her mildly sedated for the next couple of days. We are in for the long haul......again!


The timing of this could not be worse. We were supposed to be travelling to East Grinstead today and attending The Scotson Advance Clinic (see my blog from 14/09/07). I have booked time off work, my parents were going to look after Josh all week and we really needed to get back into the swing of the excercises after giving Lucy a break following her last fit. Obviously we will not be going this week and will have to try and rearrange everything. Instead we will be taking it in turns to sleep on a noisy children's ward, on a fold out bed with nurses coming and going all night. For the next few days at least one of us will have to be at the hospital 24 hours a day. Of course we will take it in turns but it means that normal life stops until Lucy comes home again. I am taking the first watch tonight so I better go and have a quick shower before I have to go and relieve Dawn. I will keep you updated of events over the next few days.