Philomena had her braces attachments removed on Monday. She felt some anxiety from her gums being poked but some extra medicine and she seemed fine. Tuesday, she called me at work feeling really anxious and struggling so I called and my mom went to my house to be with her. She was struggling to walk and had a bit of slurred speech. When I got home, I called the med doctor. All the symptoms were the same as June 2024 which was ruled a panic attack so we gave her a bunch of extra meds and she finally fell asleep in my bedroom. The next morning she was feeling better and went to her first day of school. She didn't make it to any classes. She lost her balance and fell going to the counseling center. The nurses got her and gave her some anxiety meds and had her lay down, but called me at 9:30 to come get her. She couldn't walk and her speech was very slurred.
I drove to Bryan West ER. They tried treating it like a panic attack but she wasn't responding to the meds. She couldn't walk to the bathroom and was using a bed pan. They ran a CT and CT-A scans on her but could find no reason for what was happening. They thought she should be admitted to the hospital and were trying to figure out what pediatric center to send her to. I told them her neurologist was with Boys Town so they called there and was admitted. An ambulance took Philomena and myself to Omaha.
Before we got on the ambulance, Jess (step-mom) came to the ER to see Philomena and to get her car keys so she and Gene could go get Philomena's car. My friend Courteney was able to pick up my mom and Maggie and bring them to Bryan Hospital. Mom and Maggie brought me a bag to take to Boys Town and then drove my car home. My mom stayed with Maggie at my house. Mom took care of driving Maggie to and from school. Gene came up to Boys Town when he got off work.
The night of the 13th, the Boys Town neurologist ran an EEG on Philomena and the next day ran an MRI of the brain and an MRI of the lower spine. Gene went home to sleep on the 13th while I stayed at the hospital with Philomena. He came back up on the 14th and brought me a Diet Dr Pepper. Thursday, the 14th, Philomena woke up after a few hours of sleep and was able to walk with assistance to the bathroom. Her speech was improved but not yet back to normal. The EEG came back with slowing in the area of the brain that controls the legs but the slowing wasn't enough to be clinically significant. Both MRIs came back normal. By the afternoon, Philomena could walk to the bathroom without assistance. While she was in having both MRI's done, I was using zoom and email to talk with my team and help get ready for students to come the next day. It was a nice distraction while I waited for Philomena to come back to the room. Philomena was dismissed from the hospital at 4 pm. Gene drove us back to my house.
One of the cool things when Philomena was in the hospital was a gal came around asking if she had any questions and that she was here to help kids understand why they were in the hospital. Her second purpose was to give kids things to do when they had to stay in the bed. She asked Philomena about her interests and then came back with a Lego Friends set to put together. She was able to take it home with her. I'm sure we paid for this "free" lego set somewhere in our bill but to be so geared toward children is really great in such stressful situations.
Philomena's neurologist, Dr. Lopez, reviewed tests remotely, but Dr. Herman was the on-call neurologist to see Philomena in the hospital. This was a blessing in disguise, because Dr. Herman is a neurogeneticist. We are now following up with her and have genetic testing to see if we can figure out any reason for the episodes that Philomena has now experienced twice. June of 2024, it lasted about 24 hours. This time it lasted about 3 days. We want to see if we can figure out what caused this to happen and how we prevent it. Dr. Herman says there is a 30% chance of the genetic testing revealing something to help us. We're praying for answers and if not in these tests then that these tests would lead us down another path giving answers.
August 15th, my mom stayed with Philomena at home because she was so tired out from the episode. I was able to be at work for the first day with preschool students. Maggie chose to go to her dad's house as scheduled. Philomena wanted to stay close to me while she was recovering. She was feeling better and drove herself for a hair cut on Saturday and worked in Children's Ministry on Sunday. Philomena returned to school on Monday, August 18th, after a low key relaxing weekend at home.
