Another night in the ER

Chad had a seizure this morning at 3:05.
He hadn't had one since November 17. It lasted about 1 minute, and it took him a full 45 minutes to get back to his "normal" self. He had sever shakes for about 20 minutes after the seizure.
I called his neurologist, and he told us to go the ER for an increase in meds. So the ambulance came & took him away - while I followed in the van (hoping we wouldn't be admitted & we could just go home). We didn't get admitted, thankfully.

They increased his seizure medication, and watched for a while. He had an aura (severe shaking and a feeling that a seizure is coming) around 6:30, but a quick dose of Adavan (anti-anxiety medication) in his IV held off the oncoming seizure.
They did a CT scan, and the tumor doesn't appear to have grown. But, then again, they can't really tell slight changes on a CT scan, they would need to do an MRI. We need one of those anyway to qualify for a clinical study at Duke, so he'll have to go back & have that done.

Good news is that he's fine.
Bad news is that due to the location and size of the tumors, these seizures are something we just have to deal with. I was better prepared this time because I kinda knew what to do - but I wasn't sure if we should wait it out at home or not. We really didn't want to go to the ER....
Now we know that we don't have to go to the ER unless he's not back to normal 1 hour after a seizure.

We discussed having the girls tested since there is a genetic link & I think we're going to wait. The doctors can't do anything even if they do find something, due to their age. And I couldn't take it right now if they did find some kind of abnormality. We will have them tested, but I want to get Chad well first.
At least, that's the way I feel today. I'm wishy-washy about it.


Thank you to my neighbor Carla, who watched the girls until my parents arrived this morning. I hate calling people at 3:30 in the morning. But I really love that I have the best neighbors (and friends! and family!) in the world.
The girls are in Stedman with my parents for at least one night so we can get some rest.

Also, Dr. Friedman at Duke called us last night. He needs a few more pieces to Chad's puzzle before we can get started on a study there. So, now we find those missing pieces (slides from the pathologist & a post-op MRI), and we're ready to go.