Tuesday, June 22, 2010

My flashers are on....move out of my way!

My flashers are on.....MOVE OUT OF MY WAY PEOPLE!!!!! Those were the words I was practically screaming at people as I drove like a crazy mamma to TC Thompson's ER last Monday. My Monday started out quite happily as I worked in my new classroom at Black Fox Elementary. My hubby stayed home with the kids and took them to the dr. to get some shots. I came home around 1:30, and Alex left for a meeting at church. Zach decided he wanted to wake up from his nap early, so we sat in the recliner and sang "Yes, Jesus Loves Zachy." This is when I noticed that Zach's eyes rolled upward and to the right for a split second. I didn't think anything of it until it happened again, and again, and again. He rolled his eyes upward about four times in the span of five minutes. I knew something was not quite right. I called his doctor's office to see if it was related to his shots. They said that it was not and that I needed to take him immediately to TC Thompson's ER to have a CT scan. That is when mommy freak-out mode started. I called Alex....no answer. I called my parent's house, and my brother answered the phone and did not know where my mom way. I pretty much hung up on him which sent him into his own frenzy since his crazy crying sister would not tell him what was going on. I finally got a hold of Alex while I was slinging things like a mad woman into the diaper bags. I woke Klara up as gently and calmly as possible, and in a sing-song voice told her it was time to put on her shoes, get a snack, and get in the car. Thankfully Alex pulled up as I was hauling the kids out the door into the car. We jumped in the car in the middle of a hurricane force downpour and started towards the ER. I had no idea how to get there so I left hysterical messages on Hollie and Jennifer's phones.....sorry girlies! I thought the fastest option of getting there was to put on my flashers and drive as fast as I could without getting arrested. I prayed the entire time that I would not pass a cop because I would not have stopped if they would have tried to follow me. I did not go over 85mph......I think. We made it to the ER and my dad met us in the parking lot to take Klara home with him. Zach got his CT scan (which was very traumatic) within about 30 minutes. We got the results about 30 minutes later. Praise God, the results were clear. There was nothing abnormal in his little brain. However, they really had no explanation for why he rolled his eyes. They said sometimes crazy things happen with vaccines, but I am not one of those overprotective vaccine people. I was not convinced. I came home and did some research on the computer. I almost immediately found a website called upgaze.org. It described a condition called paroxysmal tonic upgaze (PTU). The little babies in the videos did almost the exact same thing that Zach did, but they rolled their eyes almost constantly. Zach only did it four times, and the episodes were spaced out. I called my bff Hollie (P.A. at his doctor's office) and asked her about it. She did not know much about it and asked Zach's doctor. His doctor said that she had actually thought of PTU when I had first called the office. So.......if he does have PTU it is not really a bad thing. It is a condition that goes away around the age of 2. It does not get worse; it only gets better. If Zach rolls his eyes again (which he has not so far) then his doctor would send us to either a neurologist or an opthamologist. I emailed my friend who is an opthamologist (praise God for friends who work in medicine!), and he said that it sounded like Zach was a normally developing baby, and the fact that his CT scan was clear should give us hope that it is nothing worse than PTU. He said we should in fact pray that it was PTU rather than some other crazy brain condition that could be a lot worse. So to end this rather long story, we are praying that Zach does not have PTU or any other condition. However, if he does, then I just pray that God will be glorified in the situation and that my baby would be healed.


My beautiful boy