Saturday, March 25, 2017

The Third Seizure Part 1 #Meg's Long QT Journey

I've decided to divide this in two parts. This first part will cover my third seizure and what led to a possible diagnosis. The second part will be the follow up testing and getting answers to a two year battle.

Once again, things went back to normal, well kind of back to normal, for a few months. Anxiety attacks were becoming the norm, however. My third seizure happened on February 23, 2001, a mere seven months after my last one. I was still 13. This is the seizure I remember the least about. My mom and I were at a local pizza store, waiting for our dinner to get done on a Friday night. It was always busy on those nights so we were just standing there, for how long, I cannot remember. I had glanced at the clock and that undescribable feeling came over me. I simply told my mom I wasn't feeling good. I know she asked for one of the workers to help me to the sitting/dining room since the actual seizure hadn't started yet. That's all I remember until I got to the hospital. They did manage to get me there and sit down, but I wasn't acting right and stood up right before the convulsing started. By the time the medics got there, the seizure had stopped, but I was stiff on the left side. The medics attempted and succeeded in walking me to the ambulance and put me on the stretcher, even though I had been dragging my left leg. The medic tried to administer oxygen, but I fought it and wanted nothing to do with it. Since I was still out of it, I was taken to the local hospital as supposed to the children's hospital due to the fact that the other one was closer. Once at the ER, I was placed into a wheelchair and admitted right away. On the way back to the room, I was able to answer basic questions and only got one wrong - questions like where was I, my name, the year, date, etc and at one point I was crying hysterically. I was transferred to the bed and that's when I started to become more aware. I remember resisting a bit when the nurse was trying to put a gown on. Once that was done, I was given oxygen and that's when I started to feel normal. Before the medic left, he stopped in to check on me and it took me a few seconds to realize who he was. I was monitored for a couple hours. My parents were given the option to have me admitted for observation overnight or get discharged. I was discharged with orders to follow up with my doctors.

I believe we first met with my pediatrician. As we were getting frustrated from not getting answers, we made the choice to get a second opinion at a better hospital, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I saw a neurologist first and then the cardiologist. At the first appointment with my new cardiologist, I had an EKG done and based on that and my other records, he gave us a possible answer: long qt syndrome. It was a bittersweet moment. I felt relieved we were finally getting somewhere, but on the other hand, I was scared, based on that I had never heard of the condition before. Looking back, I don't think I really listened as my doctor went on to explain what it was. It may not have been final, but I was just glad that we had something to go with, a piece to a puzzle that had been missing for two years.

I'm going to end this post here as I don't want it to get really long. The second part will be up soon.

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