How it all began : Jessie's first seizure

08/04/2007

Note : This may be a little confusing at first, because we are actually writing a lot of these entries in February of 2008, and back dating them to when they actually happened. We hope to be caught up by Feb 24th, so everything after that should be closer to real time.

The reason that we are doing this, is so that all of our friends and relatives can keep up with Jessies progress, diagnosis, treatment. I know that I have hurt some feelings by not communicating things, and we hope to avoid that in the future by using this forum. Thank You so much for reading this and for all of your support and encouragement.

We were having a wonderful time on Lake Texoma sailing with a work friend of Kristi's. What a brave man, as he invited all of the Hall Zoo, including the four kids, out for the day. We were aboard his boat, the Pegasus and begining to have a spectacular day. We had no idea that the next chapter of our life was about to be written.

We had been on the water approximately 1 ½ hours, and Jessie appeared normal, chattering away like she always does.

Slowed down to eat lunch. Jessie appeared to be falling asleep while eating her sandwich (in the shade). (wheat bread, turkey, American cheese). We called her name, took the sandwich from her but no response. Cris picked her up and tried to get a response from her. Nothing. Put an ice pack on her face. No response. Put the ice pack on the back of her neck. No response. ~2-4 minutes. At the time we didn't know it, but this was what is called a Complex Partial Seizure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_partial_seizure

Jessie’s left eye and her head started jerking to the left, becoming more pronounced. Under the shade, pin point pupils. Color good. She tried to focus on me, small grunting noises. Tried to grab the bill of my cap. I asked her to squeeze my hand. She did try but only in short squeezes. Lots of drooling. Her legs started to twitch some.

After about 5 minutes, she stopped but could not keep her eyes open. Not responsive to my voice but did respond when I tickled the palm of her hand and tickled her feet. Color good. Breathing good. Twice right hand went in the air as if she was waving.

We called 911 from out in the middle of Texoma, and began our long, slow trip back to the marina. We were met about half way back by a game warden in a speed boat. He had heard the call and met us. We transferred Jessie and I to the speed boat, and began a much quicker trip back. We were about 5 minutes out from the marina, when another speed boat met us with the paramedics, and they jumped on board and began working on Jessie. At this point, they said that she was post-ictal (which means she had a seizure but was over it).

She responded to stroking her sternum (pushed hand away) and needle stick, but not much more. The ambulance took us from the Marina to the Hospital on the Texas side of the Lake.

Low potassium. Otherwise told that blood, urine, chest x-ray, CT, ECG were normal.

We left the hospital and drove home (luckily, the DPS officer that caught me speeding felt sorry for us and let me off with a warning).

We didn't sleep too much that night.....

http://jessiekelley.blogspot.com/