“Wow, what a week it has been,” I told my husband Monday night as we were getting ready to go to bed.

The week had started out as uneventful until Wednesday night when I called 911 for my now 4-year-old son, Landon.

Landon has a history of seizures, and though he is on anti-seizure medication, it wasn’t enough to stop my little guy from having three seizures in an hour that night — one of which affected his breathing and ultimately led me to call 911.

The seizures were different than some he has had in the past: One involved only blinking, another involved blinking with movement in one arm. The third involved all of his limbs, and that was the one when he had problems breathing.

That seizure, which lasted nine minutes, was the longest seizure Landon has ever had. Prior to that, his longest was five minutes long. In the past, the doctors always told us that when they go longer than five minutes they start to get more serious.

Words cannot even begin to describe the helplessness you feel as a parent when your child is having a seizure and there is nothing you can do about it. Then add in the breathing issues on top of it, and it is a nightmare come true.

We spent the night and most of the next day at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester. Doctors could not find anything that may have triggered his seizures. They concluded he needed a larger dose of his anti-seizure medication because of his growth. It looks like this is something we will have to keep monitoring.

Needless to say, in the days that have passed since we have hugged our little boy a little more, had a little more patience and tried to help him feel like he is loved a little more than we already do.

I have been through life or death situations before, but going through it with your own child takes it to another level.

I’m happy to report that Landon has returned to his prior level of energy and is acting like nothing ever happened. The resiliency of children is miraculous.

We thought the rest of the week would calm down until some unexpected circumstances led us to say goodbye to our dog of five years on Monday.

Our pets sure can become part of our families, and it is just as hard to have them leave us.

After all the chaos of this past week, I am hoping for an uneventful week ahead.

 

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.