It began with a headache. A side headache that I thought was normal due to the monthly issues or just something that was due to the fever. However, that side headache was something else. It led to a long stay at the hospital with seizures and a facial spasm. It led to a CT scan, blood tests and MRI scan.
It eventually led to a series of steroids, IV, magnesium something and other medications pumped into a young child whose hand swelled due to the plug or some reaction. The tiny hands had so many holes because of the sensitivity to the plug and the nurses had to relocate the plug a few times.
The hospital trip was because of the seizures that didn’t stop. I was trying to stay calm on the phone for the ambulance, it was my 2nd time calling, the first was due to another person who fainted in the lift and I was a bit less calm as it was my first time. This round, I made the usual call by answering that I was at the location. I read this tip from somewhere in the past.
I felt that it was important to give the address before spilling out whatever issue was happening because the responder had to decide whether an ambulance was necessary or not after listening to me. My child had a headache that didn’t go away and the initial scans from the CT and blood tests showed nothing abnormal.
When she went into a 2nd seizure, the MRI was ordered and that produced something. On the scan that the doctor showed me, it looked huge. However, the doctor said it was the white blood cells fighting the infection in the brain. Hence, the left side of the body had seizures. Her left eyeball eventually returned to the normal position by the time she was discharged.
The stay at the hospital was not fun for a child. I was glad that she slept most of the time, partly due to the myriad of medications that she had to take. She was longing to go home by day 4. The ward had several beds and hence, the nights were mostly filled with alarms going off from other patients’ machines where their hearts and blood pressures were being monitored.
From my observations, the infection in the brain was causing the seizures and it only attacked when she was high from euphoria. That meant that while the infection was still active, she should not have emotional highs to allow the infection to work its way. This also created headache for her and it was an indication. However, the doctors at the clinics would not know this because they only gave medicines for the symptoms.
This incident has taught me that headaches can be either serious or mild. In this case, it was something serious as it was a headache that impacted only 1 part of the brain all the time and it was something to be careful about. It warranted a trip and stay to the hospital because it caused seizures that didn’t stop in 5 minutes and she was so helpless during the episode.
It scared everything out of me because seeing seizures being acted in movies/dramas was different from seeing them in real life. Everyone else was panicking and telling me to chase the ambulance to hurry up even though it was not possible. I stayed calm that night and only broke down down the next day because I saw something but it didn’t feel like I should have done something.
