Harper's 3rd Hospital Stay

Harper had her third hospital stay within her 14 months of life on Dec. 8-10th at Arkansas Children's Hospital.   If you remember back in August, Harper had a little episode that they thought might have been a seizure but everything turned out good and she hadn't had anything in a while.  Well, the Friday after Thanksgiving Harper woke up from nap and couldn't stand up or walk at all.  She kept falling over and just didn't seem right and then she threw up one time after an hour or so.  I had given her Ibuprofen and some teething tablets that had been recommended because she was hurting so bad teething.  I called her pediatrician's office and they thought she might have been having a reaction to the teething tablets and told us to keep watching her.  We did and she gradually got her coordination back and started acting normal again over several hours.

Fast forward to Wednesday, Dec. 5th and I got Harper up from a nap to go get Eden and then we headed to her ballet class.  The entire time Harper couldn't take two steps without falling over and another mom happened to notice too.  Harper is usually walking all over the place and getting into everything.  This Wednesday she couldn't even take a step without falling over, it is so weird.  I tell Michael and he notices she's still not quite back to normal when he gets home from work.

Thursday I take her to her pediatricians office to talk to them about it and have them check her ears to make sure her tubes weren't blocked effecting her balance.  Her ears looked perfect and they referred us to see a neurologist at Children's.  Well I got a call saying that Children's couldn't see her until February which I was not happy about so I made some calls.  A doctor from her August visit had given me her card with her number on it and I called and left a message and kind of explained what was going on with Harper.  The doctor's nurse called me on Friday and asked me some more questions and then talked to the doctor some more and they decided they would like to do a video EEG on Harper.  That meant she would be hooked up to an EEG machine 24/7 for a day or two.  They would record everything to see if she was having seizures in her sleep or if something was triggering her to loose her coordination and balance.

They scheduled her for that Saturday the 8th and she stayed until Monday the 10th.  Boy, was it interesting.  She was video taped and audio taped 24/7 which meant that I was too=(  It is definitely weird knowing someone is watching you and listening to you at all times.  Hilarious.  I could not leave Harper's side unless someone else was in the room like Michael and this all happened during month end close (his busiest time so he had to work a lot).  My parents took Eden for those nights so we didn't have to worry about her during that time.

All of Harper's EEG readings came back normal so at this point they are thinking it may be migraines.  There is medicine for migraines that she could take but they are the same ones for seizures and they have a ton of side effects so the doctor suggested we keep watching her and record her if it happens again and not start any meds at this time, which I was fine with.  Those meds can have some major side effects that I would hate to have Harper have to deal with unless she absolutely has too.

Harper and Michael walking while we were waiting for the hospital to call and tell us there was a bed available for her.  

Harper happy that all of the electrodes are finally attached to her head.  She screamed and fought so hard when they were trying to put them on.  

 See that black tubing.  All of the wires are wrapped in it and connected to a box and then to the wall.  She couldn't walk very well being attached to everything.  Did you notice they had her in a big bed?  That was a nightmare.  I couldn't go to the bathroom at all unless she was asleep because I was afraid she would lean too far over the rail and fall out.  I couldn't even sleep because every time I heard anything I would jump up and make sure she wasn't falling out of the bed.  It was crazy stressful=/

 Getting a wagon ride out of the hospital.  She was SO TIRED!!!

We barely made it onto the interstate and Harper was out! 

We are so thankful that everything looks good!  Of course, we wish we knew what was making her lose her coordination and balance but so far it hasn't happened again.  We are praying the new year will be hospital free for all of us and we are praising God that everyone is healthy and happy this new year!