Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:57 PM CST

Aidan's had quite a couple of weeks medically. Most recently he had a seizure while we were in town taking his oldest brother Liam to the Amtrak station to return to college. The seizure started out as a partial one, like the one last Friday (see Journal History), but then became a full-blown one. We drove him to the Children's Hospital, where his Daddy brought him into the ER at a run and called for immediate medical attention. He was taken straight back to a table and given Oxygen and an IV started for Ativan (a sedative to halt the seizure).

Finally the seizure stopped, but by that time Aidan had stopped breathing on his own... he was not "moving air" -- as they said -- his chest was not rising and falling. The respiratory technician was giving him oxygen and breathing for him through the bag, but they had to decide whether to put him on a respirator or not. While trying to decide, they tried to draw blood from the artery, and this kicked him back into gear, almost literally, since he struggled and kicked and then started breathing again on his own.

After this, he slept for quite a long time due to the seizure and the sedative. He stayed in the ER overnight for observation and because the ICU and general ward were both full. Then he was moved to a general care unit the next day, and was discharged today.

He seems fine -- still recovering from the flu, but otherwise his normal self.

We are to see his neurologist in the next month or two, but they have not put him on a seizure med -- they left us to decide that, and we thought it made more sense to wait and see. His seizures are certainly scary, but they have been infrequent, and under normal circumstances we would have his seizure meds with us and be able to give them to him. If he starts seizing more frequently, the picture might look a bit differently both to us and to the neurologist.

His occupational therapist says that also, it might be a good idea to have some cranio-sacral therapy done when he has been ill since the seizures tend to happen when he is sick, and the cranio-sacral work has had some beneficial results with some people with a seizure disorder.