A new friend I met online who also has a daughter with epilepsy suggested I create a blog as a way for me to let me feelings out an use as therapy.  This is probably a great thing for me as I am a bottler of emotions and don't express my feelings well :) Then I just crack under pressure several months later so hopefully I can avoid some of that and if you want to follow my daily struggles and joys you may come along on this viral journey of emotions. Be warned there will be ups and downs... mostly downs as I tend to see more downs then ups haha... there may be some things you don't agree with but know I am a wonderful loving person and wouldn't hurt anyone.
So let me tell you a little about me before I go into lots of venting and complaining !
My name is Rachel, I have been married for almost 7 years to a man ;), I have 3 children 2 girls Emma and Brooke and then comes Quinn. I also have 3 dogs, a black lab named Duke, and 2 Bernese mountain dogs named Aerielle and Sebastian. We also have 2 kittens named Gracie and Rapunzel ( Rapunzel's name changes whenever Brooke meets someone she likes, so right now Rapunzel's name is actually Rebecca haha). We live on an acreage in SK Canada. I love being a loner with my kids and dogs... I do like other people but I love being with animals...there is something about an animals company that is amazing. They never judge you, they give you love all the time and they respect you ( well most times).  I am a stay at home mom, Emma started Kindergarten and Brooke will in the Fall so I will just have Quinn at home with me !
So our journey with this new life started March 24th a Saturday in the afternoon at 3pm. We were all enjoying a *normal* Saturday, girls were playing in the kitchen, I was on the computer ( that is normal for me ), hubby was in the garage and Quinn was playing cars in the living room a few feet from me. I was playing Zuma blitz on Facebook ( a game were you shoot a coloured ball at other coloured balls to break up the balls... yes very mind blowing haha). So as I was playing this awesome game I noticed Quinn was quiet ! NOW that in itself is extremely odd and rare ! Lets just say Quinn usually behaves like a boy with ADD, ADHD, and a thousand espresso shots in his system, a store full of candy in his body and a LOUD screaming voice ! So I look over and see him laying on his side in a weird way.. I call his name and he doesn't move or say anything. I went over to him right away and he was unconscious and not breathing.  I picked him up and flipped him upside down thinking he had choked on something. He was a completely healthy 3 year old up to this point and had never had health concerns, so I just assumed he was choking ! As I had him upside down and hitting his back I was going outside as fast as I could to the garage to get Kevin ( my husband) because he has a lot more training in the CPR first aid area. I gave Quinn to Kevin and said I found him like this and not breathing, so I ran to the house to call 911. I call 911 and go figure my nightmare I always have ( not joking) of not being able to get through to 911 comes true. They cant hear me as I am talking to them.. our house phone decides to crap out  ! So I then have to try and find my cell phone.... now if you know me I am the type of person that puts things in a *safe place* and cant find them again !!! After what seemed like forever I found my cell phone and called 911 again. At this point Quinn was still  unconscious but breathing if he was on his side. So we called the girls to get their shoes on and I managed to grab my awesome Lulu lemon sweater I live in and my purse and ran out the door. We all piled in the back of the car with Quinn laying on my lap and drove as fast as we could to the city and met the ambulance on the edge of the city. By this point Quinn was alert but groggy. I got in the ambulance with Quinn and headed to the RUH hospital and Kevin went home with the girls to get car seats and then came back into the city and met us at RUH. After getting to the ER at RUH we had to wait 25 mins to register and then headed to the Ped ER area of the hospital and then had to wait 20 mins for a bed to open up !! THEN we had to wait 2 hours to even see a Dr... As you will find out I really dislike our health care system !! Dr's looked at him and everyone was stumped, they sent us home and said that he probably choked on something or it was a freak accident. They did do an xray of his chest at the hospital to check to make sure there was nothing stuck in his throat but that showed everything was fine.  Kevin and I have aged 50 more years at this point... I cant describe the feeling of finding your child not breathing and unconscious ! It is a horrible helpless feeling.
So we are at home wondering how we are going to live our lives and if this is going to happen again. He seems fine and we continue life as *normal* for 6 days til at 630am on a Friday morning he has an episode again !! This time just I head to the RUH ER with Quinn and Kevin stays home with the girls because its no fun being in the dirty hospital for hours.....  I get to RUH and they look at Quinn and schedule an EEG test for 1pm that day. But since he was acting normal they suggested I just leave and go to Walmart or home. So since Quinn didn't have shoes with him and his shirt was kind of yucky looking we went to Walmart. We are wandering around Walmart for about 25 mins and he has another episode ( by this time we know its seizures) in the toy section of Walmart. I calmly held him but then start worrying as he is turning blue !! THANK God this awesome lady who happened to be a nurse came to me and asked if I needed help ! Another lady called 911 ( meanwhile there is a crowd of people gawking at us) the EMS people get there and we take another trip to the ER at RUH. Now we now we got a problem and something is up. Quinn has the EEG test and the results come back with epileptic showing in the brain. So the ped neurologist says they believe he has Epilepsy. They prescribe him clobazam and hope this will help control the seizures, he warns that his drug can make him extra hyper... OH GREAT we are thinking BUT if it controls the seizures I guess we have to deal with the crazy Quinn. He manages to go 4 days with no seizures and then has 2 seizures , then 2 the next day and then 4 the following day. Now they change his meds to Valproic Acid ( Depakote) liquid. This is a fight to get into him 3 times a day because he hates the taste of the meds. But he doesn't have a full out 3 min long seizure on these meds so that is good news.. but he does start having up to 30 mini seizures a day ! So we continue to meet with the ped neuro dr and decide to change the meds to sprinkle form and up the dose. But he continues to have full seizures in the mornings when he wakes up for an hour and half  ( they are cluster seizures). So now the Dr's add another drug to hopefully control the morning seizures. But here we are him still having morning seizures !  ......... I will continue this post later :)