OK friends, not a really public person with these types of things, but Chris and I are going a little out of our minds right now, and we are scared and are unsure of our next step with Isaac. Perhaps someone out there can help: what we thought were dizzy spells (vertigo) caused by an inner ear infection has continued and gotten worse and we are now in our 7th week of consistent 'dizzy spells' which we now believe are seizures, small, short ones, but the last 3 nights Isaac is woken up from sleep with these 'seizures' that are lasting 20 seconds, his arms and legs curl in, he shakes and he can look over at me while they are happening, no twitchy eyes or nausea, and he falls back asleep right away. He is calm and his 'normal' self during the day, and when one hits, he just sits back and holds on, but the night time ones are becoming constant and regular. Please respond if you have advice, or better yet, pm me. We are so out of our realm here, do we just dash over to childrens hospital? Wait for a referral to the pediatric neurologist in victoria? Pay for an MRI to get answers quickly? GP is in the loop and another call will go into them this morning too, but they wanted us to wait til he saw the ear nose throat specialist tommorow to rule out the ear infection but that would leave another 6 nights of waiting for a referral to neuro. Please tell me what you know, or what you would do. Isaac is sitting here and said: 'press enter, lets see what they say'
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From Chris on Jan 24th
I would like to ask for prayer for my son Isaac.
For the past 2 months he has been having what he describes as dizzy spells. They have usually lasted for about 15 seconds and then he is back to normal. On Monday at 4 in the morning he woke and called for us to come, he was having a dizzy spell but this was different, his body was moving involuntarily and after the episode was over he couldn't move or feel his left arm and leg for a few minutes (they are fine now). We took him to ER where they couldn't determine anything so he came home. Since then he started having about 4-6 episodes while he slept. Last night we took him to ER once again after he had 2 in 10 minutes. When we were checking him in he had a third so he got fast tracked and admitted right away. Today he was taken by ambulance transport(no sirens) to Victoria to have an EEG done to monitor his brain waves. While this was going on he had an episode, which gave them a great opportunity to see exactly what was happening. We came back to Duncan and Isaac is going to be staying in the hospital till Monday. The little we have heard sounds like he is definitely having seizures. They have started an anti-seizure medicine to see if that will correct the problem. The Doctors have requested an MRI to be done as soon as possible, possibly this weekend if an opening becomes available. Please pray that one does.
Thank you to those who have been praying already, Isaac is in great spirits, laughing, and talking like any other boy, he is most disappointed about not taking his friends the Zalinko boys to see Frozen tomorrow. Hopefully next weekend.
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Whom Shall I Fear by Chris Tomlin brought comfort to me in wee hours in the dark, empty hospital room as I lay there scared and feeling desolate.
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From Chris on Jan 25th
So Isaac had a good sleep last night. He had a short seizure at 10pm and then one at 7:45 this morning. The best sleep in a week for him and my wife and I. Thank you for all your encouraging words and prayers. The doctor just left and let us know that they think the seizures are coming from the right frontal lobe. We will be staying in the hospital until we get the MRI done and they are sure that the medication is at the right dosage. Thank you and please continue to pray for our family.
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Best roast beef hospital dinner on Sunday night.
From Chris - January 26th. Tough night.
As you head to bed tonight, please say a special prayer for my wonderful wife Sharon Burdge who is at the hospital again taking the night shift. Isaac had a good day, we borrowed the camp video projector and set it up so he could watch on the big screen.
He really enjoyed it. However his brain is having trouble settling tonight, in the past hour he has had four short episodes, where it wakes him up, but then he falls back asleep, they are lasting about 7 seconds each, still better than Thursday. We would love for him to be able to get a full uninterrupted sleep. Sharon is very tired, and needs some sleep to. An old friend of mine encouraged me the other day by reminding me that God is good all the time. He is...and we look forward to seeing how God will do good with Isaac in the many years to come.
January 28th
Discharged!!!! Really not sure what to write here. I was never one to put our personal life out for all to see, but taking that risk and letting you all really see was what going on kept both Chris Burdge and I strong during this totally brutal time. If you dropped a note, a line, a verse, a phone call, watched the door while I showered (k, that sounds weird but it happened and it was awesome), dressed up in silver, watched the windows and doors, put on your ninja costume, brought grappling hooks and throwing stars and juice boxes.... More than we can say, thank you. This medical system for children is full of angels and we are leaving here feeling like everything was examined and that we can handle his diagnosis. So.... We're starting back to life again and will find out what new 'normal' looks like......peace out.
