We took a ride in a one horse open sleigh at the tree farm. Okay, really, it was a trailer covered in hay and pulled by a tractor, and ridiculously cold out, but the kids enjoyed it none the less.
Ella got her first real manicure...
And they were both invited to their first birthday party here for a little friend from MOPS, Kayla...
They've also made lots of friends at church, to include this little guy, Noah, or as Sterling calls him, "Nomah"...
And of course, they had their class Christmas party at school, which parents were invited to. It was so much fun seeing them amongst their peers in a classroom setting!
And that was the last day everything was okay. The last day before the world shifted and we all landed upside down on our heads. A monster creeped in during the night without ever making a peep. I have wished a hundred times I could have caught that monster, told it to go away and leave us alone. But I couldn't. I never even knew it was coming.
On the morning of December 19th, Sterling woke up with the flu. We had all been vaccinated against the seasonal flu, but this was the year of H1N1, the swine flu. The media had been warning us of the dangers of the flu, but just as many were warning of the dangers of the vaccination for H1N1. I had been on the fence, and I guess fate or time made the decision for me. That morning Sterling woke up with a fever and vomiting. We were supposed to head out for Christmas with family in both Alabama and Georgia that day. We postponed travel until the next day, hoping he might feel a little better. By the next day I was sick with the flu also. By the time we arrived in Atlanta, we all three were sick.
By the 25th, Sterling was doing MUCH better. I still felt pretty rotten, but all of Steling's flu symptoms had cleared up except for a lingering cough. Ella had the least trouble with this flu. She was down with a fever for about two days, but then was on the mend. By Christmas morning he was a happy boy and I thought the worst was behind us.
If only I had known. The morning of the 27th Sterling woke up before anyone else at about 7 am. I took him downstairs and he was being a little fussy. I wasn't really sure why he was being fussy. Nothing was wrong with him, it was just like he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed. I left him in the family room full of new Christmas toys while I went to pour him a cup of juice. When I walked back into the family room from the kitchen, he was laying face down on the carpet, convulsing. It took me a moment for my brain to register what my eyes were seeing. I scooped him into my lap on the floor and held him as he continued to seize. I kept telling him he was a good boy and I loved him. I didn't know what was happening. He looked like he was dying. I was afraid these would be the last words I ever said to my son. The whole episode lasted no more than a minute. I immediately called 911, hysterical. Afterwards he was what I would come to know as post ictal, which is a catatonic state following a seizure. When the paramedics arrived they assumed he'd had a febrile seizure brought on by a fever...but I knew he'd been fever free for 3 days. At the ER the doctor assured us that thousands of children have febrile seizures that amount to nothing and we'd probably never see another one. That evening at home, relieved that "everything was fine" I watched as he suddenly collapsed, almost like he'd blacked out for a moment. I shrugged it off as it had been a split second thing. The next morning he had another seizure. This seizure resulted in a trip to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, a CT scan, MRI, EEG, and an overnight stay. While in the hospital overnight he had another seizure. The next morning when the EEG team arrived, he dropped again, and they pointed out that was a type of seizure. After meeting with the neurologist, we left with a prescription for Keppra and the assurance that he would be fine and most likely outgrow his newly diagnosed epilepsy. If only it would have been so simple.
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