Seizure Tonight

First of all, I got the most beautiful hot pink roses from Mr. Wonderful today. He had a good day, and visited with my brother over the lunch hour while I drove Tye to meet Phillip at Bethany.

Then Brian had a grand mal seizure tonight around 6pm. He was watching t.v. and we had just been visiting about what to order for our Valentine dinner, when his right arm started its usual jerking. I knelt down beside him and rubbed his arm. We originally were unclear if these tremors were caused by a brain issue or a muscle issue. The jerking continued, including intense squeezing of his hand. He was talking and complaining, as he hates these. This lasted for about 60-90 seconds, then I noticed the right side of his face seemed to be jerking too. His mouth started opening and closing and his eyes rolled back in his head, and in a few seconds, he was unconscious. It continued for what felt like an eternity, probably a total of at least 3 minutes from start to finish, but I'm not a good judge...I wasn't keeping time at first because I wasn't expecting it. I called the hospice nurse, and by the time she called me back (like 90 seconds) he was snoring loudly. I could not wake him at first, but he was soon able to be aroused. He could talk, but it came out all garbled and jumbled, like a foreign language. A few minutes later, that wore off. By nearly 45 minutes out, he was just very tired and had a bad headache.

The nurse called Dr. Anderson, who ordered extra doses of some of the medications Brian already takes...one to prevent a seizure, one for swelling in the brain, and one to try to stop the seizure. I know what I know, and I am sure that Dr. Anderson suspects increased swelling in the brain...likely caused by the necrosis, or possibly another tumor.

Brian was pretty upset by all this. I held it together ok because I was trying not to scare him. He just told me this morning that he wonders what will actually happen to him to kill him. Now he his even more worried about what might happen next. Now that he is sleeping, I am trying not to panic. It was all very scary.

This will give me the chance to talk to the girls about what could happen. They are gone with their dad to the Great Wolf Lodge, and Tye is at the farm, of course. I never know what all to prepare them for. I am thankful they weren't here. Brian and I have some things to take care of, and hopefully he won't sleep the whole day tomorrow. Right now his brain just needs to rest. Maybe the meds will be all it takes to control this.

Thanks for your continued prayers. If you look in the right hand corner of this page, I have added some other blogs that we follow. Warriors are those with melanoma.

I'll try to update you in the morning, but I might not get to it until tomorrow evening.

Jenni