...yes, number 2 visit to ER for Greg! NO FUN!! On March 5 (Saturday) Greg went to Children's Health Care Urgent Care for what I thought was the beginning of an ear infection...and it was just plain terrible from that moment on!
Greg was doing great all day Saturday! On Saturday evening, after dinner, Greg lost all balance! It was crazy! He could not walk without falling or sit up without tipping over. Even in the bath tub, he was teetering on his belly! CRAZY! Greg has never had an ear infection before, but I knew a loss of balance could be a sign...so I called the pediatrician. He had no other symptoms...no fever, was not fussy, was not pulling at his ears...he just had ZERO balance. It was so sad watching him try to walk around and just fall all over the place. The pediatrician advised we go over to Urgent Care and get him checked out. So out we went at 730pm to urgent care...also bed time at this point...LOVELY!
Upon arriving at Urgent Care, Greg was checked out....NOTHING wrong! Ears were clear, and he looked to be in perfect health aside from his lack of balance. He was not acting dizzy or anything of the sorts! They did some blood work...NOTHING! So the doctor comes back in and advises we go to Scottish Rite Children's Hospital downtown. She told me she already contacted the Neurologist there. Excuse me??? Neurologist...as in his brain has something wrong???? I was not so okay at this point...but held strong because I had to for my sweet baby boy!! So we got in the car to head downtown! I called my mom and had her bring Maria to me because I did not have enough milk pumped for her! So we get to Scottish Rite around 11 and get taken back by 11:15 in an EMERGENCY ROOM...only the really bad cases get taken first, right?? CRAP!
After some waiting, the doctor comes in, does the initial evaluation, and tells us we need to get a CT scan...awesome, just awesome! At this point, he was able to sit up without falling over, but had some issues walking still! :-( Also, it's after midnight and the poor baby has slept maybe 45 minutes! It just broke my heart taking him to get his CT. He was such a big boy though and really did not cry! He thought the noise the machine made was pretty cool! We got the results at around 2...NOTHING! Everything was clear on the scan! The doctor told us the next thing was a spinal tap and MRI. Just great. Greg got his spinal tap around 2:30 AM. It was terrible...I was not allowed to be in the room for this one...and they brought him back to me just screaming. If you don't know what a spinal tap is, googling it while your 17 month old is having one is not the appropriate time for figuring it out! Spinal tap results....nothing...all is clear...good, right? Except my little guy cannot walk and no one knows why!
So we got admitted to the hospital around 3:30 AM, awaiting the MRI in the morning! He finally slept from around 4:30 until 8:30! That was about as much sleep he got over a 24 hour period! He woke up that morning...still teetering, but not nearly as bad as before. The pediatricians came in, the neurology team came in...all were puzzled, but could clearly see something was not right! He checked out as one healthy boy...minus the walking! Both of our parents came to be with us which was nice. It took my mind off of worrying...well a little, at least! Around 12:30, they took us back to radiology for the MRI. Please keep in mind, Greg had slept for maybe 5 hours total that night and had not eaten since 5 the previous evening and has had doctors probing him and checking him practically every hour for the past 16 hours! He was not a happy camper!
In radiology, the doctor ordered the MRI with contrast. Contrast allows for a more detailed image, and was ordered since nobody had any idea what was wrong with my baby! Parents have to sign off on contrast after they watch a video of the risks. Curious of the risks...no big deal...paralysis, infection, death....just to name a few! AWESOME! So here I am watching this terrifying video, trying to decide what to do! What to do?? I just watched a video with a risk of death and now I have to decide to okay this procedure? It was terrible thinking about all that could go wrong, but I knew having contrast would be for the best in this case, seeing as how we had no idea what was wrong with him. The team let me come in with the little guy as they put him under! It broke my heart as he passed out in my arms. They laid him down and strapped all sorts of tubes, nodes, and other things to him. They let us give him kisses, and then we had to go. It may have been the longest hour and half of my life! They brought him back to me and he woke up in moments in my arms...pretty droggy, but awake and a-okay! :-) MRI results....clear! Just lovely...right? So three major tests later, lots of blood work...and still we have no clue what's wrong! At this point, around 3, his balance was almost back to normal. The neurologist told us that Greg most likely had a virus that ran so quickly through his body it was not detectable on tests and this was something that could have thrown him off balance. He assured us that we took the right steps in taking him here for testing...even though we may never know what went wrong!
Greg really was a trooper durung it all. He rarely complained...although he got upset with the doctors coming in all the time to assess him. He really hated the blood pressure cuff! I was SOOO impressed with the doctors and nurses throughout our entire visit. They were so patient and loving and SO great with Greg. Their interactions with him truly touched my heart. I know this is not our last ER visit, but hopefully future ones will not be this scary! I am just so glad nothing was wrong! By the time we got back to our house at 6 pm, 25 hours later, you would have never known anything was wrong with him. He was back to his normal self...balance and all!
Heather took some great pictures of Greg when she came to visit us! Clearly, I was not thinking of capturing this on camera! :-)
Heather brought him this Tiger to make him feel better! He liked to kiss it! I love that the hospital had wagons to transport them around in instead of wheel chairs!
Look at that hair!
He wanted to push the wagon himself. The nurses were not too wild about this!
Riding around in the play room. Look at his IV hook up on his arm! :-(
Checking out Mr. Potato Head!
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