what the!?!

I am sitting here in Winnipegs Ronald McDonald house watching Sam sleep. He did not get much of it last night. Or the night before or before that...

let me back up this train of rambling a bit....

ON Wednesday last week I called our Neurologist office to ask a few questions about the side effects of the meds that Sam was on and how they were ... ummmm.... a bit extreme. All we were wanting was an assurance that they were normal or maybe that there was a possiblity that it was also more absent seizure activity. What we got was a call about 45 minutes later from his nurse saying that he wanted us to get into the seizure clinic (EMU) the following week. This was followed by a phone call on late Friday afternoon to be in Winnipeg at the Health Science Centre MONDAY morning by noon. We would be staying for 5-7days of monitoring so be prepared...

We were a bit excited by this as we thot maybe it was more serious than we had thot. So Friday the call came (on our way to Josh and Ikes football game), Saturday AND Sunday brought butchering the cow, canning 57 qt and 30 pt of meat, bagging 100+lbs of burger, cutting a truck load of wood for cadets, cleaning the house, doing all ours and Sams laundry, baking buns, cookies, muffins, a square all for lunches this week, dinners and packing. Monday was a stop at the school to get work in order to stay caught up with this week and then the 3 hour drive to Wpg. 

We arrived at the HSC by 11.50am, were admitted and taken to the EMUclinic, where we sat for 45 minutes, then proceeded to a room where Sam was ‘wired up’ with electrodes to hook into a machine to read his seizure activity. From there we were moved to the ward -- room GD-242 -- where he was settled in and FINALLY at 2.30 (after I asked about his meds) he was given his meds, THEN I went to the cafeteria to get him some food. We spoke with the neuro and what his plans were for Sam ove rthe next few days and all was good. His dinner was brought to him at 6ish, and at 8.30 it was time for me to leave and .... no meds... again I inquired if they didnt have them ready yet I would give him the ones from our ‘stash’... but I was told they WERE in but he would be given them at 10pm.... 

This morning I got to the hospital at 10.30 and he had eaten ‘some’ breakfast (not enough in his words) and had not had his val proic acid yet... (he usually takes them at 7am!!!!!) BUT he HAD had his keppra... the reasons behind this were because they wanted to do a blood level first --- ok .... but Sam said they did that at 6 am.... he got his val proic at 10.45.

By 11.30 Sam was starving so I went and got him a doughnut (a rare treat these days), a fruit cup and a small coffee. Thinking his lunch would be soon it would be a bit of nibbly to have for the day. Well lunch did not come until 1pm...

Sam was absolutely ravenous by then! And as he is finally eating his lunch in comes the neurologist to inform me that we have been “KICKED OUT” since Sam is only 15years old and NOT 18.... WHAT!?!?!?!

The doctor was very apologetic and blah blah blah... proceeds to tell me that there IS seizure activity going on  and that makes alot of sense since there IS the bullet still there and blah blah blah.... then tells me that they DO have 24hours of monitoring to look at. And they are going to slowly ween him off of the keppra and onto Topamax.... more blah blah blah and more blah blah blah.... Sam then asks if he can play football and is told basically “no and probably never will because of the epilepsy”.... bit more of blah blah blah and ...

Then he leaves... I sat there dumbfounded and Sam close to tears of the new news on football. I left to call dennis... then I got my mad on and went to the nurses station where I continued to hear from 2-3 nurses FROM THE EMU CLINIC that this is all the neurologists fault and he should have known better and blah blah blah... I asked if no had read his chart first and saw his birthdate and did the math!? No because it is up to the doctor.... OMG! Seriously!?! Pass the buck just a bit more now ladies! Even when I tried to explain that it was NOT ONLY the doctors fault that SOMEONE at SOMETIME should have done the math to realize that this kid is NOT 18 and said SOMETHING to SOMEONE before we travelled 3 hours to get here! But nope all they kept saying was it was ALL the doctors fault.... sigh

I packed up all of Sams things and waited for them to get all the stuff off of him. I also (not in the nicest way either) pointed out that now he has had 2 days with little sleep (one night of worrying about going there and one while in the hospital), all his eating is off, his meds have been messed with AND a new med introduced...and I am expected to take him home...

3 hours travelling...

EXPECT SEIZURES now people! ANd because we are at a point with his seizures that he does not go to the hospital the seizure stress is all on Sam and me. He will seize and I will watch and deal with it and he will deal with the after effects of it AND his newly formed record of 4 weeks seizure free will be gone and we are back to square one -- waiting .... nice... thanks a lot! 

We came back here to the Ronald McDonald house to pack up and calm down and while I was talking to our Epilepsy advocate Sam fell asleep on the bed. Thankfully we were prepared to stay here in WPg for 5-7days, so we have the room. But we will stay tonight and start for home fresh in the morning. And if he seizes... maybe I will take him to the hospital and sit and wait for someone to do something....

When I get home I will be on the phone to our MLA and MP and next week after the elections I will be on the phone to the Minister of Health to explain this story to them too. I will be making sure that this doesnt happen again to US or ANYONE else! 

Right now tho I will sit, have my coffee in my room (not usually allowed in the House but they are letting me stay with Sam incase he seizes) and I will try to relax and read my book.... or maybe I will start some phoning...