Boston Children's Hospital

We're traveling back to West Texas now and I'm a bit sad our trip to Boston is over, (see ya again in 4 years, my love!)

More details soon, but I know everyone wants to know why Boston Children's Hospital became part of our itinerary. Their neurosurgery department is ranked number one in the country, and I'd love to move there to take Annie there always. But, taking her there during vacation was not what I had in mind.

Annie has Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus. On top of these, she also has an arachnoid cyst on her brain which has required 5 surgeries since we got her.

I'll know she needs to go to the er if she becomes lethargic, (there are many other symptoms, but this one seems to be her main one in regards to the cyst).

Typically her lethargy will remain or get worse until the surgery alleviates the pressure.

Friday night we went to the Red Sox game. For the first hour or so, Annie had a blast. Dancing, talking, animatedly waving, calling, "hi Fenway park! Hi Wally!" Etc

All of a sudden she tells me she's tired and wants to go back to the hotel. She has never once asked to go home/go to sleep, (she's not a complainer!). This was very strange and I asked her a few more times to confirm. Sure enough, she wanted to leave! So we left at the 3 inning, (crazy, right?!), and headed back to the hotel (2 minutes walking distance). I put Annie in bed with the lights and TV on, (I'd put her to bed after my shower). Brooke sat next to her on the phone and I took a shower. I came in the room and she was out! Ok, she must have truly been tired, I thought to myself.

The next morning, she awoke seeing 7:30 asking for milk and I told her to go back to sleep, (a normal morning ritual which I usually do in vain lol).  To my surprise she went back to sleep! She slept until 8:30, and awoke to ask to watch a movie, (like I said its a ritual so she was just wanting to be awake). I told her to go back to sleep and to my surprise she again did, (I try this everyday and it usually never works! Lol).  We got up and ready for the day shortly after that and Annie stayed asleep. I allowed her to sleep because she obviously needed it the night before. But then it started to get strange again.

I can wake up Annie at any time of the day and she'll wake right up and be alert, (and considering usually once she's awake she'll stay awake no matter how I beg for her to go back to sleep lol). So here she was after sleeping for 12 hours, falling back to sleep the second she opened her eyes. I'd sit her up and she'd slump over like a rag doll and be right back to sleep.

I knew immediately something was wrong. It was either her head or just a uti, both of which would need immediate attention. I debated back and forth about taking her to the er, (we were in Boston for crying out loud and would return home the next evening!). We decided to go down to breakfast and Annie fell asleep SITTING UP IN HER WHEELCHAIR. After over 12 hours of sleep. Something was wrong and Brooke encouraged me to take her to the er, (it was nice to have someone else see something was definitely wrong! Mind you, this is the most lethargic I have EVER seen her).

We jumped on the T and two exits later we arrived at Boston Children's.  After hours of waiting and waiting, we were told there was no uti, the cyst was stable and her shunts looked fine. I was not happy. Something was wrong but I was being told "nothing was wrong." It was very hard to leave the hospital, but I had no choice, (and if you're wondering we did salvage what we could of that evening and Sunday before our plane took off, thankfully). :)

After being sent home, I was told by two different people that they thought it may have been a seizure. To my knowledge she's never had a seizure, but her lethargy was so bad (and improved where if it were her cyst/shunt she would stay lethargic/get worse), that I'm starting to think there may be some merit to this.

If you're like me you are thinking a seizure is a long episode of convulsing, etc. But I've learned a seizure can last seconds and just be someone staring off into space. My brother's future mother in law is a teacher and has dealt with many kiddos like this. They'll have to go to the nurse to sleep it off, go home, miss about a day then return good as new.

This would fit perfectly into what happened to Annie. My thoughts are that she had one of those, what I'd call, invisible seizures at the Red Sox game. The time line is just too perfect. :/

I'll be calling her neurosurgeon tomorrow to set up an appointment to discuss everything and see what he thinks. Obviously, seizures are scary and I'm not to happy with this thought. Please pray for my Annie! :)

(so so thankful I had Brooke with me for many reasons, but I'm glad someone saw how bad it really was)