I haven’t done anything with my blog lately – not sure why. But it drives me crazy when my kids who blog don’t post anything for a while, so I guess I’ll try to pay more attention. After all, I wouldn’t want to bug my kids…
So, I have a son, Jazz, who is almost 28 years old and is mentally handicapped. I don’t know if that term is politically correct right now, but during his years in public education, that was the term we used. So I continue to use it. Hope it doesn’t offend anyone.
Well, anyway, Last Friday (8 days ago) Jazz had a seizure. This is a regular occurence for him, but he is always OK within a few hours. But after this seizure he never really got back to “normal”. He had some times when he seemed fine, but other times when he was just “off”. On Monday he wanted to play basketball with his Special Olympics team on the TSC patio at Utah State. He seemed fine, so I took him there. The game was at noon and the temperature was about 90*. He got hot and sweaty, but he drank water throughout the game. Afterwards he came over to me and he was shaky, so we sat in the shade for a while and he drank quite a bit more water. Then we had lunch and he seemed to cool off and feel better. He was OK Tuesday and Wednesday morning, but when he came home from work Wednesday he went straight to his room and laid down. He slept from 3:30 – 6:00, when he woke up long enough to have a little pizza for dinner, then he went back to sleep. I was having a Relief Society meeting at our house that night, and he came out for about 3 minutes to stand next to me, then he went back to bed.
The next morning he didn’t wake up at his usual time, so I just let him sleep. I checked on him every half hour, but he just couldn’t wake up. He would turn over or open his eyes for a minute, but just kept sleeping. I called his doctor, but he wasn’t in that day so I made an appointment for Friday.
Friday we saw the doctor, who listened to his heart and lungs. He said his heart sounded wierd, but normal for Jazz (he has a congenital heart defect and has had open-heart surgery 3 times) and his lungs sounded clear, which was a relief because he gets pneumonia easily and occasionally lapses into heart failure. But when they tried to draw his blood, nothing came out. They stuck him 4 times and came up dry every time. The doctor told me Jazz was becoming dehydrated and I should get him to eat and drink a lot and go back in the morning for the blood tests. We went to lunch, where he ate a normal amount of food and drank a big cup of soda. Then he went to sleep when we got home.
I woke him up at 7:00 to have dinner and he came out of his bedroom staggering. He was dragging his right foot and walked like he was drunk. I asked him to carry the syrup to the table and he immediately dropped it. He picked it up and dropped it again, picked it up, dropped it, 5 or 6 times. He sat down in his chair and looked at his pancakes, but acted like he didn’t know what to do. He kept doing repetitive movements with his right hand, very similar to what he does during a seizure, but he didn’t have his “seizure face” which is a strange and distinctive look he gets during a seizure. We asked him a few questions, but he just looked at us with blank eyes and couldn’t respond, so we took him to the emergency room. By the time we got to the hospital he was completely unresponsive – couldn’t walk, talk, squeeze our hands, stick out his tongue, anything. He just sat on the bed slumped over. We thought he might be having a stroke.
The ER doctor said he was extremely dehydrated, so the nurse came to put in an IV so they could give him fluids. Now, for those who don’t know, Jazz is normally a sweet, happy, cooperative kid, and he has a pretty high tolerance for pain. He never flinches when he has blood drawn or anything. Well, when the nurse tried to put the IV in his hand, he flipped out. He just went nuts. He started kicking and fighting and screaming and crying, so the nurse yelled for help. It took 5 of us to hold him down so they could start the IV and put restraints on him. His eyes were huge and he looked absolutely terrified. They finally got the IV going and gave him something to calm him down, but it was pretty unnerving. They did a CT scan which didn’t show any kind of brain problem, and the blood tests came back normal. Apparently severe dehydration can cause an “altered mental state”. The doctor’s best guess is that Jazz probably had heat exhaustion from playing basketball in the hot sun, then picked up a virus of some kind, which led to the other problems. After 3 liters of IV fluid, we finally left the hospital and got home at 12:30 AM. When we got home Fuffy and Mr. Music gave him a priesthood blessing, which is always comforting. He slept a really long time, but when he woke up today he could walk and talk, so we were very relieved. He’s not back to normal, but I imagine he will be within a few days. Poor kid.
So here are the lessons learned: (at least on my part) – 1. The power of the priesthood is real, and I am so very grateful for a husband and son who honor their priesthood and live worthily. (I already knew this, but a reminder never hurts). 2. I’m more grateful than ever that Jazz is naturally a happy, loving boy. Seeing him behave in the opposite way ( for what seemed an eternity but was actually about 10 minutes) made me realize again what a blessing he is in our family. We wouldn’t be the same without him. 3. Having an adrenaline rush makes me tired and weepy. 4. Even though he’s a grown man (technically) I have to remember to monitor what he eats and drinks so we don’t have this experience again. 5. Writing is therapeutic and now I feel better. I better print this and put it in my journal.
To quote The Beatles, oh-bla-dee-oh-bla-dah-life-goes-on-yeah-la-la-la-la-life-goes-on!
