The best laid plans

Mom, Brett, Will, Jack, and I headed up to the new house on the day following the closing of our old house (18th). Mom was going to start painting the Living Room Brett was going to do some sanding on my cabinets, I was going to do some painting in the kitchen, and the kids were going to cooperate :).

We got to the new house around 10ish William needed a major nap and Brett volunteered to help with that. Mom started in the living room and I did odds and ends and finally was able to start in the kitchen. At some point the Atmos gas man came and turned on the gas and showed me how to do some stuff and turn on the fireplace. When he turned it on, Oh my! it smelled horrible. Strong chemical smell we opened up the windows and turned it off quickly. The gas man told me that it smelled that way because they were Styrofoam logs. And if we burned them on high for about an hour with the windows open the smell would go away.

Sometime after he left 30 minutes? Will woke up. He had slept for about an hour. When he woke up he came and asked me for some juice. Brett was in the garage and Will kept going in and out. He smelled like gas out there and he decided to finally stay inside and play with Jack when I told him to choose where he wanted to play. Mom was painting and I was talking with her. I noticed Jack needed his diaper changed and went to change him on the floor. I thought Will was playing by me on the floor while I changed the diaper, but I just can't remember. I got up to throw the diaper away and when I came back to the Living Room I was listening to what Mom was saying but looking at the kids. Will was just laying on the floor and I thought that he must not have slept long enough. I just kept staring at him and then finally noticed his color was not normal. He was staring blankly, and I started calling his name. I hurried over to him to pick him up. He wouldn't respond, and he was completely limp. His jaw was clenched tight, and he had been drooling and there was some blood that came out of his mouth. His breathing was very light. I was terrified. I kept calling his name and begging him to look at me and begging my Heavenly Father to let me keep him.

Mom called 911 while Brett attempted to find a neighbor at home with no luck. The lady on the other end was giving Mom instructions to give to me of things to try and do. I don't remember all the things but I do remember that she told me to rub his sternum HARD with my fists. When I did this he let out the most beautiful sound of protest I think I've ever heard; He cried out. A few seconds later I heard the sound of an ambulance siren. I was saying thank You! thank You! Hurry! Hurry! When they finally arrived with what seemed like forever then but only a short time after the fact, I just felt such a release. I backed away from Will who seemed to be sleeping on the grass, no longer lifeless just sleepy, and gladly let the paramedics do their job. They looked at him and from my description said they thought it was a seizure. He still wouldn't really wake up so they wanted to take him to the hospital.

In the ambulance he finally woke up but still didn't act like he knew who I was or cared if I was there or not. I'd say William look at Mommy. He would slowly look over at the sound of my voice look at me for a few seconds and then look somewhere else. THAT really scared me. It wasn't until after we had been admitted to the ER for about 5 minutes that he finally clicked back to reality. He started crying for me!

While we were there, I recapped the story to doctors, nurses, and police officers several times. They took x rays of chest to make sure he hadn't choked on anything, and a CT scan of his brain. Patrick arrived about that time and made one little terrified boy and momma soo happy! The CT scan and xray both showed nothing thankfully. But while we were waiting, Will gave us another scare so the doctors decided to send us to Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital. I rode with Will in the ambulance and he fell asleep pretty quickly, and thanks to Brett dropping off his favorite blanket stayed that way till we arrived at VC. We met with several neurologists who thought it best if we stayed the night so they could monitor Will and get a MRI and an EEG in the morning. Blake and Dad came to see Will and keep us company. Mom and Brett ran the phone lines and kept Jack, and mom finished the painting in the living room.

They transferred us up to a room for the night. Dad and Blake were fixing to leave when Will had another seizure. I was holding him and he just yelled and lunged away from my body and started to shake. The Nurses came quickly and we sat there and waited 3 minutes for the seizure to end. I felt so helpless just watching and waiting and praying for it to end. When it did, I held Will for a few minutes till he calmed down and wanted to sleep.

Dad and Blake left, and Patrick and I took turns watching William sleep. He had been sleeping for about an hour when he woke up. I asked if he was cold he said yes. I went to get him another blanket when he started having another seizure. After this, the doctors thought it might be good to go ahead and start him on medication to stop the seizures. They hadn't wanted to do this because of the EEG but thought it was in his best interest to go ahead with it. After the medicine he seemed to sleep great.