Yesterday was quite the day. I got up at [5:30] to work. Sometime after that, Doug heard Jonalyn whimpering and went to her room. He thought she might have to use the restroom, so he took her. I heard them and went up to see what was going on. When I put her back to bed, she felt a little warm, but I thought it might be from all her covers.

At [6:30] I went to wake her for school and she was seizing. Her eyelids were flickering, her eyeballs in the corners of her eyes, her mouth twitching, along with her right hand and some movement in her right leg. The rest of her was rigid. At one point, the seizure slowed, but started right back up again. She drooled. A. Lot.

After trying to reach the on-call doctor without success, we called 911. Never had to do that before. I forced myself to remain calm so they could understand me. Doug brought her downstairs to be ready for the paramedics and I started gathering things we would need. She continued to seize.

Because we live in the country, it took a little time for them to respond. The first two people to come were paramedics who lived close to us, but they couldn’t do much without the ambulance. Then the sheriff deputy showed up and while I was answering his questions, the ambulance arrived.

I went with her to the hospital, but before we even left the driveway, the paramedics gave her some Valium, which stopped the arm from twitching, but her eyes continued to flicker and she wasn’t responsive. She continued to be rigid. They gave her more Valium, and that finally stopped the seizure. All totaled, Jonalyn seized for at least an hour.

Scariest thing of my life. Bar none.

They took a chest X-ray and found she has pneumonia. She had zero symptoms. Her fever was normal when we got to the hospital. No coughing. No lethargy. Could it be from aspirating saliva when she was seizing? The doctors are baffled, but she’s on antibiotics and in isolation.

When we arrived she had another of her vomiting episodes & diarrhea. Sorry to be graphic, but I’m being honest about life here. We wonder if this is related to her previous vomiting episodes. Has she been having seizures we’ve never caught before? Her behavior is exactly like with those other episodes.

Doug & my mom arrived and then they admitted her. We finally got to our room about 1:00 pm. She was very tired and still not herself, but responsive, so I left to wash up and get some clean clothes and my medication. The neurologist came in while I was gone, but didn’t say much.

The did an EEG, and as of writing this, we don’t have the results. They drew blood which didn’t show a raised white cell count, further baffling us as to the pneumonia.

They let her eat a late, light dinner of some noodles and teddy grahams. Doug left to be with Alyssa for a while. Brian had gone to a friend’s house. Sleeping in a hospital is a unique experience, especially with a cranky baby next door and nurses who check in every 2 hours.

And that’s about where we stand. They thought they would do an MRI this morning, but decided against it. They were hesitant to sedate her with her pneumonia. We’re waiting for another consult with the neurologist regarding seizure meds and waiting for training with the seizure kit they’ll send home with us. They are switching her to oral antibiotics, so depending on the outcome of all of this, she may get to go home later today. She shows no lingering effects of the seizure except for fatigue.

We covet your prayers. This has been so frightening, but God has been gracious. Last weekend I would have been out of town and so would my parents. Doug was supposed to be visiting his grandmother this weekend, which would have left me alone, but she isn’t well and they decided to postpone the visit. This happened on a Friday morning when both Doug & I were home. Through it all, we can clearly see God’s sustaining and providential hand. We praise him for his care for our daughter and pray this was an isolated incident.