So this morning was transition day across most of the UK for year 6 children transitioning to secondary school, so while Murray got Imogen ready and took her to school I went with Jed to his new school to drop him off. As with a number of year 6 boys Jed was full of bravado about not being nervous at all and that everything was fine, although this totally belied the fact that everything else was wrong and the smallest thing got him wound up! But I am sure this was happening in many homes with a year six pupil this sunny morning!
This all went smoothly and I walked back up the road thinking that I would have a few minutes before a meeting I had in town, when I realised that both of our cars were still parked outside the house. Now this was 8.50, school starts at 8.45 and is a 15 minute car journey, so I knew that some thing had happened that caused Murray and Immi to still be at home.
Going in back about an hour, Imogen had had a seizure at about 8am. She had woken up in a good mood, willingly started to get herself dressed, and we had gone down for breakfast. While in the kitchen getting her breakfast ready she had gone into a seizure and fallen, losing bladder control. She recovered, and I had left with her sat at the table ready for breakfast. Unfortunately, there are post seizure symptoms that we often don't see or hear about. Sufferers will often get tired or get a headache, or as Imogen often does, display hyperactive behaviour, which is the body's way of compensating tiredness and trying to stay stimulated. It can also cause a change in behaviour and a previously calm, friendly person can suddenly become sullen, angry and frustrated.
Today, was typical of this and sadly, the friendly, compliant Imogen disappeared and in her place we were left with a tired distracted, angry child who did not want her breakfast. Murray tried to cajole her to eat, knowing that she would need the energy, and she made a deal that she would eat if he wasn't watching, however after two failed attempts of leaving her to see if she would eat, he started to worry about how to get her to school. She would not eat, take her tablets, clean her teeth or do anything. By the time I walked in she was screaming at her Dad, 'I am NOT going anywhere. I am NOT eating. I hate you!' And Murray was at a loss of any more strategies and getting more and more frustrated himself.
I tried reasoning with her, to no avail, I tried calling her school teaching assistant to see if she could talk her round. All that did was to cause her to scream down the phone 'go away! I am not going to school!' In the end I managed to give her a hug, get her to eat a fat bomb (a high fat, low carb snack from the ketogenic diet) and get her into the car by telling her she didn't need to talk to her Dad!
I closed the door and ran to the phone as I had to phone the hospital and get her an emergency appointment in the fracture clinic as she broke her wrist a few weeks ago and it was giving her so much pain again that the school had called. (She has a really high pain threshold too, so it must have been bad!). They made me an appointment for 2pm, I was supposed to pick up Jed at 2.30 so I called Murray and had another logistical conversation then ran into town for my meeting with the council about an arts festival I am helping to organise.
The meeting over ran and so I made my apologies just after the published finishing time and crept out, yomped back home, jumped in my car to meet a friend for an hour whose daughter also has additional needs. After, empathising with each other for an hour, I picked up Immi from school and drove to the hospital.
The hospital was very efficient and the doctor decided we should have another X-ray to check the break, all went well; I only had to hold her arm in the correct position for one shot and we only had to retake once! We went back round to the waiting room to see the doctor again and Imogen was playing with a dolls house next to a young boy. Suddenly she went into a seizure, obviously shocking the lad and his carer. I would normally stop and explain to any onlookers to try to dissipate any fear, but this time I didn't have a chance. We went to the toilet where I discovered she had wet again and unfortunately the pad had not been enough. Normally this would be ok as we would have spare with us, but because there is a bag that stays at school I didn't have any spare. I faced a dilemma, do I leave her in the toilet alone and run to the car or what? Eventually I asked a fellow parent to let the nurse know if they called for her, and ran to the car. As I ran, I saw a nurse and she offered to stay with Immi. I reached the car and went through her school bag, realising we had no spare clothes, knickers or pads with us! Arrgggh! What now?
I ran back to the toilet and asked the nurse if she could help. She said she would go and ask. A couple of minutes later she returned empty handed but saying that someone had gone to the ward to find something. Another 10 mins and a nurse arrived with knickers and a huge pad plus a special needs nappy. The knickers and pad seemed the lesser of two evils so I put those on Immi who did not cope well. With cries of 'this is so rubbish! This pad is too big and I can't wear this!' And me whispering through tight lips 'it's only for 20 minutes Imogen, as soon as we get home you can change' and secretly praying that they wouldn't say that she needed a cast, we went back into the waiting room and thankfully quickly back into the doctor's office.
He informed us that the break was definitely healed and that the pain was from the dystonia and that we could go - phew!
So finally we are sat on my bed (Immi sat on a protective mat!) watching a DVD, recovering from a 'normal' day. We still haven't had dinner, I wonder what spills and thrills that will entail?!...
Update....5.50pm just finished changing Immi again and cleaning up the kitchen floor from another seizure. Hey ho!
But please don't feel sorry, just give thanks for good health, good relationships and good provision in the UK. We are so blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment