Today started out with a bang! Rick had just gotten out of the shower and I was reminding him to put on his deodorant when he started jerking. I grabbed his arm and he crumpled to the floor. I was hollering, "Jesus help us! Jesus help us!" I'm not sure why I thought hollering would be helpful. I know asking Jesus to help us was helpful. It just didn't need to be hollering. Erin woke up with my hollering. I had started to call 911 and I just handed the phone over to her. He was shaking from head to foot for about 3-5 minutes and then he started breathing very heavily with a snoring sound. This lasted for about 5 minutes. Then he was unresponsive for about 15-20 minutes. The paramedics arrived about the time he stopped snoring. They tried to arouse him by calling his name. When he did start to wake up it was probably about 30 minutes before he was able to get up and be helped to the bed. I called Dr. Pearce to see if he thought we should take Rick to the ER or just let him recuperate at home. He encouraged us to go to the hospital. Tamara and Cheryl had gotten her by then and they followed the ambulance to the hospital. Erin and I had to get dressed yet before we were able to leave.
In the ER, they hooked Rick up to the heart monitor and BP cuff, got an IV access, and drew blood. A med student did the initial exam. Then the doctors came and talked to us. Said they were going to get a Dilantin level from the blood they had drawn. I guess they automatically draw blood when a person first comes into the hospital and the decide later what they want to do with it. Rick became a little agitated so they gave him some Ativan. This calmed him down and he went to sleep.
After waiting for a little while we were told his Dilantin level was 1.9. I asked if that was good. They said, "No, it is supposed to be between 10 & 20." So they gave him a bolus of Dilantin 1000 mg IV. This took about an hour to run in. This plus the Ativan really knocked him out. He was sleeping soundly.
When the IV was finished we had to wake him up and see if he could drink anything. They brought him some orange juice and he drank it all. Then we got him up to see if he could walk. With a little steadying he walked out to the nurses station in the ER. This was maybe 20-30 feet away. He got almost there and he pointed to someone sitting down in the station and said, "There's...." The nurse said, "Yes, he works in neurology." I looked and it was Dr. Lefkowitz, one of the doctors that Rick and Dr. Pearce worked with when they were at North Carolina Baptist Hospital. I tried to get Rick to turn around and go back to his bed but he resisted. I asked him if he wanted to speak to Dr. Lefkowitz and he said he did. We walked up to him and Dr. Lefkowitz recognized Rick right away saying, "Hi Rick, What's going on?" I explained that Rick had had a seizure this morning. He said he hoped Rick would get better and then we went back to his bed. Rick still remembers the people he worked with over 15 years ago. He couldn't pull up his name, but he knew who he was.
So Rick was able to go home. Erin went to get the car and the nurse was wheeling him out in the wheelchair. Just as we were passing the nurses station, Nathan Streer, Erin's boyfriend, came up. He is in his 1st year of fellowship there at Wake Forest university Baptist Medical Center. Tamara had called him to let him know that Rick was in the ER and he came over to see us as soon as he heard. Nathan is a very nice fellow!
We got home about 12 noon today. Rick was still a little weak and tottered on his way up the stairs from the garage. I put him in his lounge chair and covered him with a blanket and he went right to sleep.
I got dinner for Cheryl, Emma, Erin and myself and just as we were starting to eat, Rick walked out into the kitchen. He was hungry. He ate a whole large chicken quesedilla.
After dinner, I put Rick to bed and he went right to sleep again. He slept sound while I was working around in the room. I folded clothes and took a shower and he never woke up.
Tamara, Cade and Mara were joining their church today and at 4:30 they had a
special ceremony. We were all going to attend. But after Rick's seizure, Jeremy volunteered to stay with Rick while the rest of us went to the ceremony. Thank you, Jeremy! I got Rick dressed and took him over to Cheryl's and Jeremy's house and then Cheryl, Emma, Erin and I went to the ceremony. By this time he was acting pretty normal. He probably could have gone with us. But I thought it would be better if he rested a little while longer. I knew he wanted to go to our church tonight for a special program we were having.
When we got back to Cheryl's house, Rick was ready to go to church. We left right away and got to church about 1/2 hour late. We walked in and everyone clapped for us. It is so good to be a part of a good church family. We stayed around and talked for about 30 minutes after church was over.
We are now home and Rick is at the piano, picking out melodies and tunes. He dose pretty good. It is very nice to hear him playing. He says he would like to learn how to play it better. Maybe I should get him some piano lessons?
Thank you, Lord, for bringing us through another tough situation. If it wasn't for Him, I don't know how I would do it. God is good! All the time!
