As my children age, I have a hard time changing my view of them. They will always be my children, my little girls. Brianne is now almost 15, and is reaching out for more freedom and responsibility. Freedom to spend time with her friends, out of eyesight and earshot of me. This transition, from 'Mommy's Little Big Girl' to teenager has been difficult for me. I don't like to think that in another 2 years she will have graduated from high school, and will be in college, wanting to move out and move on down her own path. It makes me want to stop and scream "WAIT!!! Who said you could grow up so fast?" Certainly not me. Although I love getting to the age when the children can actually tell you what they want, and what is wrong, I miss the baby stage. (One would think that is the reason my oldest and youngest are 12 years apart. One would be wrong...)
Somehow we have arrived at a time when Brianne is showing a responsibility to herself and to her parents, making good choices about who her friends are, and also making those good choices when she is out with those friends. So when Brianne asked if she could go to the Farmer's Market in Chico, with Gavin and to meet friends, two Thursday nights ago, I let her go; and asked her to bring home some fruit for Jocelyn's lunch. When Bri and Gavin returned she was all talk, telling me about the Market, what they had all had to eat while there, and the strawberries Gavin had purchased to dip in chocolate for her. She was sitting across the kitchen counter from me, talking away, while I was looking into her eyes. (I don't know if it is just being a mother of a teenager, working where I do, or a combination of both, but I was looking at her, watching her and listening to her, checking for any tears in the coat of responsibility she has been she has been sewing.) While looking into her blue/grey/hazel/complimentary-to-whatever-she-is-wearing eyes, I noticed her right pupil was much more dilated than the left. My first thought was 'here we go again'. (We had an episode of dizziness, headaches and nausea in January.) I told her what I was seeing, Gavin verified my observation, and her response was, "Don't say that! That's what happened when I had my vertigo!!!" I asked her how she had been feeling all day, she said she had been a little light headed, but it had been a hot day and she thought she might be dehydrated so she had been drinking a lot of water. (Now, mind you, a lot of water to her is a drop to me. She may drink 3 bottles of water while she is at school [on a good day] while I bring my 64oz mug to work and try to drink 3 of them in a 10 hour shift. Yes, it makes for a long 4 hours until a partner gets there to allow you a bathroom break!) We decided she would go to bed early and see how she was feeling in the morning.
Friday morning Brianne was still a little light headed, a little dizzy, but no headache or nausea, so I let her go to school. (With 3 AP classes, she really does not need to miss anything unless it is an emergency.) When she got home from school, she still had the same symptoms, and her pupil was a little better. (You may be wondering why I did not rush her to the emergency room as soon as I noticed the pupil on Thursday night, but like I said before, we had been through an episode like this in January, and Feather River Hospital assured me it was vertigo and migraines, pumped her full of anti nausea medication and morphine and sent her home. After sleeping for 36 hours straight, she was much better, and after a week was totally back to normal.) Brianne went to bed at a reasonable hour again, trying to let her body rest and fight of a possible migraine.
Saturday Brianne slept till almost 1:30pm. Now I would normally not let her sleep so late into the day, but knowing she was not feeling well, and possibly trying to get a migraine, I called Cam from work and asked him to let her sleep in. He is not a morning person, so he agreed to my request, probably wishing Jocelyn and Claire were not morning people like their mother... Anyway, I spent the morning researching possible causes, triggers and other symptoms of vertigo and migraines. Some things fit, others were totally off, I know, illness is never textbook. Such is my life... :-) Due to a miscommunication between Cam, Brianne and I, Brianne spent a short amount of time at the river with friends to celebrate Michael's birthday. She ended up having Gavin bring her home because she was not feeling well. (Too much sun when fighting a migraine is probably not a good idea.) They ended up at my Mom's house for the remainder of the afternoon. For dinner Saturday night, everyone was going to meet me at Asian Garden for Chinese food. (I talked with Brianne about being careful of foods that may trigger migraines, but she really wanted to have Chinese food for dinner.) She ate very well, if slowly, but was more dizzy after the meal. Gavin drove her home where we proceeded to watch a movie. After the movie, I read to Claire and Jocelyn and got myself ready for bed. Cam, Brianne and Gavin stayed up watching three episodes of The Closer.
Sunday, I just happened to be working with a partner, Jenny, who had worked as for the local ambulance company for many years. She advised me to have Brianne looked at by a doctor again. I called from work to check on Brianne and learned she was still fighting the headaches, dizziness and nausea. By the time I got home from work that evening, her speech was slower than usual, and she was having some difficulty coming up with words. All symptoms I had found listed for migraines, so I was not overly worried.
Monday the symptoms had not gotten any better, and Brianne was having a great deal of difficulty walking because of the vertigo. So, after taking Jocelyn to school, I returned home and called the advice nurse at Kaiser. She recommended I bring Brianne in to her Pediatrician as soon as possible. Well, since the nearest Kaiser is in Sacramento, my Mom and I had to drive 2 hours to get her there. Melissa met us at the Pediatrician's office at 11:30am with Cody, and Brianne's insurance card. We were only in with the doctor for maybe 5 minutes when Dr. Farghalli excused herself saying, "I'll be right back." When she returned, she advised us she had called for an ambulance to transport Brianne to the hospital. We were not allowed to transport her ourselves as she was not able to walk without assistance and the office was not able to release her for liability reasons. The ambulance was going to be an hour, so we were placed in a waiting room, a nurse plugged in Sleeping Beauty and we were given a snack of graham crackers and apple juice while we waited. (All of us except Brianne who was not allowed to eat or drink just in case the hospital wanted to run tests.)
The medics who arrived for the transport were very friendly, and Brianne was able to talk about food the whole way, almost convincing them to stop at Chili's for lunch
All Brianne could talk about was wanting a Classic Chili's Sirloin, cooked medium, with extra steak butter, loaded mashed potatoes and broccoli. After they dropped us off at the hospital, I think the medics were going to lunch.
By 1:30pm Brianne was all checked in at the hospital. Her spirits remained high throughout the dizziness and nausea, except when the headaches hit, and we waited...
Eventually a nurse came in to put in an IV.
After having 4 vials of blood drawn for testing, and waiting 6 hours, Brianne was starving. A nurse brought her a roast beef dinner with red potatoes and almost steamed vegetables.
Just as she finished her dinner, a nurse came to take her for an MRI. After removing all her jewelry and making sure her braces were not going to be pulled from her teeth, she was wheeled, Bryan and I in tow, to the MRI lab. Manuel, the technician, was very nice, explaining all that was going to happen, and making sure we all had ear plugs and Bryan and I had a place to sit in the room with Brianne. If you have never had a MRI, the machine is very noise, and depending on what they are looking for, can take some time. Brianne was in the machine for about 25 minutes, and fell asleep to the humming and vibration. After the test, she was wheeled back to the ER and asked for another dinner as the roast beef was not enough. Her second meal was BBQ chicken with mixed vegetables and rice. Brianne polished it off without looking back. An hour after the first MRI, another nurse came in and told us she was taking Brianne back to MRI. I asked her what happened to the first one. With a look of regret, like she did not want to tell us why there was a need for a second MRI. Bryan and I followed Bri's bed, once again, to the MRI lab. Manuel was able to explain the need for a second MRI. Brianne's braces were interfering with the picture and the radiologist wanted smaller slices to try to get a better picture. I sat in the MRI room with Brianne while Bryan stayed out in the technician's area to watch the images on the screen. After the second MRI, Brianne was wheeled back to the ER once again, to wait to hear from the doctors.
Were there going to let her go home like Feather River or were they going to keep her? While we waited, a male nurse names Sean came in to check Brianne's vitals. I know low blood pressure runs in our family, mine was 100/64 just the day before, but her 70/48 was a concern. Sean looked at Bri and told her the hospital would not let her go home until her blood pressure stayed over 90. Well let me tell you, after chatting with Sean for a couple of minutes (did I mention he was about 22 and spoke to Brianne instead of us parents?), Brianne's blood pressure returned to a healthy 92/58. She was starting to think she may get to go home; although her dizziness and headaches continued, her speech was returning to normal. She was wrong. The pediatrician chose to admit her into the hospital so they could run more tests and try to figure out what was wrong. Once the decision was made to keep her overnight, wouldn't you know it, we found out the pediatric section of the hospital was closed for remodeling. We were lucky though, the hospital decided to keep Brianne there instead of sending her to another Kaiser hospital in the Sacramento area. She was to be taken to the fourth floor and settled into a private room across from the nurses's station, because of her age. While the nurse was getting her ready to change floors, I ran out to Jack in the Box to get myself dinner, since I had not eaten all day, and to get Brianne her third dinner. She became known in the ER as the 'Skinny Girl Who Can Put Away Food'!
