Torah's flight to TCH and what happened

I knew that I would jinx Torah the way I have been bragging about how healthy she has been. Saturday morning she woke up looking great and her normal self, by about the noon hour it looked like her reflux was trying to start up. Around 12:30 I checked on her and noticed that she was not very active and was having a hard time breathing, so I deceided to hook up the suction machine and try to clear her throat and nose out to see if she just was having problems keeping her air way clear. Normally, when I turn on the suction machine and try to suction her out - she puts up a pretty good fight . . . not this time. This is when I knew there was something wrong! Bob was at a shop working on my car (he had worked the night before and was suppose to work that night too), so I called him to come back home so that I could run Torah over to the local ER to have them check her out. Torah seemed a little warm but according to my thermometer was not running any type of fever (which is nothing abnormal for her). After checking into the ER - the staff got her right back and since they were not busy (thank God!!) the ER doctor was right there checking her out to see what was going on. The nurse did a rectal temp and came back with a temp of 95.4 - then the ER doctor told me that Torah probably aspirated some of what she refluxed and they were going to do a Chest x-ray to check for any signs. They tried to start an IV but had no luck (not surprised), so the doctor put in an IO (into her leg) to get fluids started and to start antibiotics and other medications (like reglan, atropine, dexamethasone, benadryl, tylenol, and metroidnasole - I quit keeping track after they were given). Torah started to spike a fever and started to shake a lot. The doctor said that the shaking was due to the medication, but there was some twitching in her hands that was not normal and the doctor also noticed that her pupils were dialated at different sizes and would not respond to light. He then ordered a CT of her head to check for anything going on in her brain area (possible bleeding or maybe hydrocephalus). It took the CT Tech awhile to get the CT because Torah was shaking so bad, but after about 30 minutes they had what they needed and Torah was taken back to the ER. After she got back the shaking changed and persisted for the next 3.5 to 4 hours (the doctor and nurses told us that it was just due to the medication). The Childrens Hospital in Denver was called and Flight for Life was arranged to come and pick Torah up.

When the Flight for Life team arrived they said that the shaking was due to seizures and imidiatly gave her ativan to calm the seizure down, but also had to give her another alternative seizure medication along with more ativan to stop the seizure all together. With all the medication given to stop the seizure they ended up intibating her for the flight down to Denver.
After our 1.5 hour flight to TCH (around 9 o'clock at night) - Torah was admitted straight to the PICU (Pediatric ICU). She had anywhere from 3 to 15 people in her room for the next 7 hours. She stayed intibated till 6am the next morning. During the 7 hour period, the doctors and nurses did many tests for them to look for a possible infection (they had been giving her tylenol all night trying to get her fever down). Some of the test done were a urine sample, blood tests, Lumbar pucture (spinal tap), nose swab, and a few others. Sad to say (or good to say) the test all came back normal (or negitive for any infections), so in other words - the doctors did not know what had caused the fever or seizures . . . so lets just blame it on some unknown "virus".

Sunday, Torah was moved to the 8th floor for them to monitor her. She pretty much slept the whole day sleeping off all the drugs that was given to her on Saturday. Monday, she was showing signs of her normal self and was eating normal doses of food - so the doctors deceided that we would be able to go home on Tuesday (sorry Bob, no Elk hunting on opening day for you!!).
Torah recoverd as fast as she got sick. We still do not know or understand what happend that day and we hope that it does not happen again any time soon. The doctors did up her current seizure (prevention) medication from 200mg to 300mg - so I hope that helps.

I took Torah to see her ENT today to check on her ears and to see if her ears had filled back up with fluid or not. Well, her ears did fill back up with fluid and so she will be getting tubes put back into her ears to help with dranage so that she can hear. The ENT doctor also discussed with me the removal of her adenoids - he said that removing them would help her in many ways and should hopefully keep her from having tubes again after this 2nd set has come out (not a guarentee - but we hope it helps). So on Thursday, Sept 17th - we will be in Casper having tubes placed and also a adenoidectomy.