Tessa's hospital visit

On Sunday, Oct. 27, I first noticed Tessa at church laying on her stomach to color, but her whole body was shaking. I quickly grabbed her, thinking she was having a seizure, but she immediately started yelling that she wanted to color and I should put her down. She started to color again and I told Dave to watch, and sure enough she started shaking. He then picked her up and again, she immediately protested and seemed totally fine. Over the next few days she continued to have these convulsions every time she laid on her stomach to color. She would stop coloring and kind of zone out while she shook, and her breath would come out in short bursts and she'd get very red and hot and sweaty. I videotaped her on Wednesday. Finally on Thursday I took her into the doctor, who decided we should go to Primary Children's hospital and have some testing done. He suggested Absence (petite mal) seizures, but after looking them up online that did not fit her symptoms. So on Friday we put her to bed at 11 pm the night before and got her up at 5 am in order to make her sleep deprived and prepared for her EEG test. We took her up to Salt Lake and they hooked her up to all kinds of wires (the lady told her she was fixing her hair and puttin "pretties" in) and then they had her color so they could monitor one of her episodes. It was hard for me and made me cry because I was worried and I also stop her every time I see her start to shake, and I didn't like just letting her go. But she was so good and such a trooper. Then they wanted to monitor her while she slept, and she started to feel scared at that time and was crying, but I managed to get her to sleep and they monitored her for about 10 minutes, probably less. Then they rudely woke her up with strobe lights to test her further and see if they would initiate seizures. She also did a hyperventilation test when they had her blow a pinwheel for about 4 minutes straight. I was amazed she did it! They gave her a knit hat for her cabbage patch doll, which he loved!

Next we took her over to have a CT scan done. That also went easily and smoothly and she held very still and did great! Then she got Dora stickers and was thrilled. That was it! We went home, and that afternoon got a call saying the CT showed a skull fracture, but it looked kind of old and they weren't too worried about it. But still on Monday we went to talk to a neurosurgeon, who said, "Why are you here? I can't do anything." So it was a total waste of time, except he said he thinks the shaking and the fracture were not related. So in a few minutes we're heading out to see a neurologist. I'm thinking they're not really going to figure anything out and will say she'll just grow out of it and there's not much to do. Let's see if I'm right :)

On Saturday Tessa asked me for her usual paper and pen and then said, "Hey Mom, wanna see me get all shaky?" She's totally aware of what's happening! And now, every time she is lying on the floor and we try to talk to her she says "Stop it!" because she knows we're going to tell her to get up. But she just loves being on her tummy! Last night she talked to me through a whole shaking episode, saying, "I'm berry good at shaking" and things like that, describing her picture to me, etc., all the while her legs jerking around behind her. It's so interesting. I have no idea why it's happening.