When Joe got up this morning, he found Thomas just outside his bathroom/bedroom on the floor too dizzy to walk again. We decided enough was enough. I called our physicians after hours line and spoke at length with the nurse. It finally came down to taking him to the ER. So we packed some stuff in case it turned into an extended stay. Thomas really wanted Mackenzie to come with him. So we brought her too.
We got to the ER around 8:15 a.m. It wasn't too long before they got us back to a room. The nurse from the family doctor had phoned ahead that we'd be coming. After all the history was given and physical and neurological exams done, there were still no answers as to what was going on. The doctors then worked with the MRI department to get him in. They were able to make room in their schedule for a 1 p.m. MRI. So then we just had to wait.... Then the nurse came in and said he had to have an IV. Oh he was not happy about that program. After that was in they gave him Ativan to help him relax. She told us it would have to be given just before the MRI so that it didn't wear off during the MRI. He received it around 12:30 p.m. He got very sleepy and his eyes glazed over. We tried to encourage him to just fall asleep but he kept opening his eyes.
The MRI took 45 minutes because they also had to do a dye injection during the last 10 minutes. I got to be in with him and he was fairly calm until the end; then he started sticking his tongue out and moving it side to side. They had to repeat the last image multiple times. When he was all done I asked him about the tongue moving and he told me "I was trying to make myself happy, it was the only thing I could move!". He hated the MRI said he felt like he was falling and every time he closed his eyes he'd have horrible scary dreams.
We got the results shortly after that. Everything looked normal. So while we felt a great sense of relief that it wasn't a brain tumor or cancer, we still had ZERO reasons for why he was so dizzy and his head hurt so badly. Meanwhile the Ativan was taking Thomas on a horrible "trip". He began seeing double and triple. He started screaming and pulling the blankets over his head screaming that we had three and four eyes. He tried getting off the bed and was very agitated. The doctors came back in and said their theories were post concussion re-occurrence or childhood migraine variance. They gave us a prescription for a commonly used drug for migraines in children to try while we waited for the follow-up with the pediatric neurologist. Thomas had to finish a bag of IV fluids before they would let us leave. It was not an easy task to keep him safely on the bed. At one point, I seriously thought he might remove his own IV. The nurse cautioned us to tell doctors in the future that he does not react well to Ativan. So after we left the hospital we had to pick up Chris from home and Cassie from volleyball. Then we took them all to Chiptole- Thomas' choice. He ended up eating in the truck but I think he ate 5 tacos. He was still loopy from the meds and not able to walk well. Afterwards we had promised him Legos so we went across the street to Target. He picked a cool Chima Lion set. Before heading home we stopped at the Walgreens to pick up the migraine prescription we were to start tomorrow. I didn't research it until after I bought it and got home. A very common and main side effect is dizziness. I wanted to scream "Seriously!!!!!!" . Didn't we go to the ER because he was so dizzy? So needless to say we aren't trying it. Hoping to get some sleep tonight but doesn't look to promising as the other crazy side effect of the Ativan is that he feels like he's falling when he's lying down. He doesn't believe us that he's not. He keeps screaming help "I'm falling!".
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