An Unexpected Phenomenon????

Weren't we just smooth sailing through rehab?!?!? Well, Jackson decided to pull a huge SCARE on me this morning. The past couple of nights he has been waking up in the middle of the night and playing in his bed for hours. I noticed he did it again last night about 3:15 am and the last time I remember seeing him awake was at 4:35 am. Well, at 6 am he gets a dose of medicine. His nurse came in to give it, and I noticed she was in the room, but was still slightly sleeping. Jackson usually takes anything down, sleep or awake, when you put it to his mouth...no problem. So the RN...started saying "Jackson...Jackson...," then asked me if he was sometimes hard to wake. This alarmed me and I told her...Never! She said, "He won't wake up." I jumped up and ran to see if he was breathing. His levels were fine. We sat him up...shook his body...everything...NOTHING! She called Rapid Response Team. I couldn't believe it...NOT AGAIN!!!! I saw the same team come in that were there the horrible night he had the Dilaudid reaction. Then I look over and Chaplin Damian is in Jackson's room again too! It was another heart wrenching moment. A nightmare!!!

They all tried waking Jackson up...still no response. The checked his pupils...they were tiny, tiny little pen dots...barely retracting. He seemed comatose. I was freaking out...he was just up playing...what happened?!?!?

They did say it was a good sign he was breathing on his own and maintaining good levels. They tried response with pain on his sternum...he moved a little but no eyes opened. Then they did a blood gas on him and all levels were perfect.

Next step...was to get a CAT scan to make sure there was no bleeding or a clot. On the way down, we went to ICU to have a Doctor look him over there to make sure. Again, no response...so he took his stethoscope and ran it as hard as he could over his sternum...Poor Baby! He opened his eyes and looked and then was back out. So still only responding to pain.

We went down to the CAT scan...had it done very fast...in a matter of 10 minutes we knew the CAT scan was normal. Thank goodness there was no bleeding or swelling.

Still did not know...everyone kept saying, "Maybe he had a seizure, and he is postictal now." Which postictal means the period following a seizure or convulsion...a state of drowsiness. (which he has never had) Even though they said during this time right after surgery, he could experience "unusual" seizures...I still didn't buy it this time! It just didn't add up, plus his pupils were teeny, tiny instead of dilated.

Then we get back to the room...it was now 7:15 am (1 hour and 15 minutes later)...we were situating him in the bed...when Jackson did this BIG stretch...and opened his Big Blue eyes with big pupils, SMILED, LAUGHED and blew BUBBLES at the nurses and doctors. It wasn't funny...even though he thought so! No one could believe it! He was his normal self.

After Neuro, Neuro Surgery and several different Doctors evaluated...they ordered medication levels (which we hadn't had in almost 2 weeks). Those came back within range. Then an EEG. I was scared to death to see what the brain reading would show, but I just knew that he didn't have a seizure. They did an hour reading....and the results came back that there were NO ACTIVE SEIZURES! Thank God! There was still some abnormal spiking in areas, but they said that is completely normal considering he just had surgery and his history. There could not be better news!!!

Now the difficult part is...whatever happened is an unexplained "phenomenon" of sorts. Dr. Chugani was supposed to be out of town until Wednesday, but happened to get an earlier flight back today. He just came up to check on Jackson and another patient without knowing anything. (Such a good Doctor) He and the other Doctors are not too concerned with this incident. Dr. Chugani has seen "100s" of different kinds of these occurrences following surgeries and they usually never happen again. There is a lot of trauma to the brain after these surgeries and the reorganization could play a role. Another Dr. and therapist said they have seen this a couple of times before too! I don't know if this "unexplained" is good or bad, but I do know I don't like what I saw and not knowing. However, all necessary tests were done and nothing came back abnormal. We pray this doesn't happen again! I have never been so happy to still be at the Detroit hospital and not at home. Having the machines with the vitals helped so much! The staff was again amazing with their response.

Of course, this happens when I am by myself! I am sure it was harder on Tony with my 5 am wake up call that Jackson wouldn't wake up and not knowing everything that was going on. Thank God that it wasn't anything more serious! I am again today counting our blessings that Jackson is still seizure free and everything is okay! What a day!!!!!!

Please pray that we have a peaceful last week in the hospital and continued recovery for Jackson!