poor hayden's week of episode pt I

poor hayden has had quite a week! on tuesday, I had to take adriana to the ENT to talk about getting tubes in her ears, but I had noticed that hayden wasn't quite himself. he was crabby and runnign a low temp so i made him a appointment with our pediatrician and asked my sister to take him. she called me and said he had an ear infection. heprescribed an antibiotic and sent him home. when i got home that night, he was even more crabby and whiny. he was up all night miserable. he began throwing up the next day and couldn't keep anything down. he hadn't had any wet diapers, so i took him back to the dr. he fit us in at the last appointment of the day and said if he wasn't any better by the morning, call over and we'd get him admitted to the hospital for IV fluids.

we got home and i was rocking him. whitney stopped by and i tried to get him to stand up to show her how miserable he was, but i realized it had gotten so bad that he couldn't even stand. i was rocking him to sleep when all of a sudden, he passed out. his eyes rolled back into his head,he went limp and stopped moving and breathing. i started yelling at him and slapping his cheeks trying to get him to wake up. he was out for about 30 seconds before he finally woke up and started crying. we loaded up and i took him to the emergency room. the doctor there called our pediatrician and they decided to send him to iowa city for testing, just to be safe. theycalled it an ALTE (assumed life threatening event). they loaded him into the ambulance and daddy rode up with him, with me driving behind.

we made it to iowa city's university hospital and they looked in his ears and said 'yup, he has an ear infection!' he was fine and happy and even jumping on the bed for a while. hours later, we were STILL waiting for the drs. the nurse was in the room and he was tired and crabby again, so i was rocking him on my lap. he was fussing and all of a sudden passed out again. it happened the exact same way except it only lasted about 6 or 7 seconds this time. the nurse yelled for the dr, but he got in there just as he was waking up. instead of examining him, he turned around and walked back out. another cpl hours later, another dr came back and said we could stay overnight for observation or we could go home with a nasal spray to give him if his 'seizures' lasted longer than 5 minutes. they told me his 1st episode was a febrile seizure and his 2nd episode was just him passing out from crying so hard, which was ridiculous because he wasn't crying very hard at all. i asked if we could stay without a saline lock and she said should would ask the other dr. she came back in and said that they were just going to go ahead and send us home after all. i was furious, but off we went. about halfway home, we decided to stop forc offee since it was about 3 am, and we were exhausted. daddy went in to get it and i noticed i didn't hear hayden breathing. i looked back and sure enough, he was passed out again. i smacked his chest and he started to come back to. i realized they hadn't given the prescription they had said they would and i was so mad that they sent us home that i called the U of I hospital back. the drs who had treated him had just gone home (convenient, huh?) so I spoke with another dr. she said she didn't understand why they sent him home without seeing a neurologist or doing an EEG and offered us to come back up. i told them no thank you, we would be finding a different hospital who took us seriously.

we made it back home and went back to the pediatrician first thing in the morning. we explained exactly what had happened and she was just as angry as i was that they sent him home with absolutely no testing. i felt a rush of relief that someone was on our side. she told me to take him to peoria that day and gave me a note to give to the ER dr describing what happened. she told me not to leave until they gave him an EEG an EKG and a consult with a neurologist. so we loaded up and headed out, just me and hayden this time. daddy stayed home to watch the girls. once again, i noticed i didn't hear him breathing so i turned around and he was again unconcious. i slammed into park on the bridge and reached back and smacked him again. it took a few seconds but he began to come to. we hurried up to peoria and after hours and hours and hours in the emergency room, were admitted. we met with the drs and they took a full history and i described all that happened. they hooked him up to a heart monitor(like the one he was on as a newborn) and watched that overnight. he didn't have any episodes while on the monitor, so the next day, they wanted to send him home. they told me he had been simplyholding his breath and passing out and that it was common. i wasn't convinced but after a great deal of arguing, i agreed to go home, but asked for him to be sent home on a heart monitor for a week so that if it happened again, i would know (in case he was asleep or in the other room) and could get to him. they refused and pretty much told me to suck it up. i realized they were trying to send me home without doing any of the 3 things my dr had requested they do and i knew darn well he wasn't holding his breath and then passingout because he didn't quit breathing until he went unconcious! so i called hayden's pediatrician and he finally convinced them to do an EEG and get him a consult with the neurologist.