The Most Traumatic Event of my Life...to date

So normally I wouldn't blog this for all to read, but because it was so scary for me I hope to be able to alert some of you other moms out there in case it happens to you.

Thursday morning I was down in Provo at my home getting ready for work while Owen was spending the day with my family up at Aspen Grove Family Camp (above Sundance in Provo Canyon, and Owen had been there all week with my family). I had been texting my dad about how well Owen was eating that morning and how much I missed Owen and we were joking about what was going to happen when Owen goes on a mission and I can't see him for so long. About 10 minutes later I was on the phone with my mom and she was telling me that Owen had just had a seizure and was being taken to the hospital in an ambulance here in Provo.

I was in such shock that I just started hyperventilating but I needed to call KC so I regained some strength and got on the phone. When I started telling him about my conversation I just had with my mom I couldn't talk anymore. I just told him to go to the hospital and meet Owen there. Alyssa was coming all the way from work (she's amazing) to pick me up and drive me to the hospital (since I wouldn't have been able to drive).

We got to the hospital about 10 min before Owen did in the ambulance (remember, they were coming from up the canyon) and we were able to alert the staff that he was on his way and we had a super nice ER doctor come outside and wait with us. He started telling us about "febrile(?) seizures" and that they are common in young children, all the while I'm just crying and crying.

Well my dad called to tell me he was on his way down in a car behind the ambulance and my mom was in the ambulance holding Owen. Then he started to tell me what happened:

My mom was holding Owen but needed to go talk with Dallin so she put him down and walked out on the balcony and closed the glass door behind her. Owen then started to cry so hard that after about 15 seconds he just went quiet. My dad was there watching him and thought that he was crying so hard that he hadn't breathed yet. Owen had walked over to the glass door after my mom and when he got there he just sat down and rolled to his back. My dad was right there by Owen's side but Owen was blue and limp by then. My dad was yelling for help, got my mom's attention and then remembered the medical staff they have at the camp. He picked Owen up and ran with him to get help. They found the fire chief and an EMT who stared trying to resuscitate my still blue limp baby.

Some campers who were near the commotion came over and asked if they could be of assistance. One was an emergency room pediatric dr and the other was a pediatric surgeon. How amazing is that! They were right there ready to help. Well by now Owen had been blue for about 2 min and somehow, on his own he started breathing again but was having a very hard time waking up or opening his eyes. The staff had called 911 and had an oxygen tank right there so they got the oxygen on him and was able to keep that on him until 911 got there with another tank.

So hearing that story from my dad, while waiting for Owen to arrive in the ambulance only made my crying harder but I had my angel sister Alyssa there able to comfort me and KC.

So Owen arrived, and fortunately he recognized me and KC right away (phew, no immediate brain damage that we can see) and we got taken right to a room. He got poked and prodded for a while and was just crying and crying. We got a mini EKG done to check the heart, x-rays to check the lungs, and blood work to check what the blood is telling us. After all the tests the results we get back are that he must have been chocking on something but we're not sure what because it's not in his lungs still. So we're sent home and told to watch his bowel movements for whatever he was chocking on and to not take him swimming to give him food he could choke on again for a few days.

The good news from the ER doc was that 1) it doesn't seem that it was a seizure and 2) according to all the testing they did, his heart never stopped pumping although it was very faint.

Owen and I on the hospital bed. Owen just slept and slept. And then his hand all wrapped in tape to hold down his IV:



I was not feeling good about that diagnosis because he wasn't around any food or garbage or anything to choke on and he didn't have time to find something in the 15 seconds that he was crying and then start chocking on it. But fortunately we had asked for the results and on the results from the hospital they put a note and said -hyperventilating activity may have caused peribronchial tightening- in other words he cried so hard his throat tightened and he couldn't breathe. That diagnosis made more sense with the time line and all that.

Well whatever it was that Owen had gone through took its toll on him, me and KC. We were all exhausted the rest of the day.

So when the family got back together we were talking about the experience and I mentioned that Owen has cried before and his lips turned blue but I was able to get him to breathe again. So I though, as long as I'm with Owen, we'll be able to pull him out of his crying spell....I wish.

So then on Saturday, we were on our way to Stadium of Fire, all the kids were walking there and we had Owen with us. Every time we'd get to a stop light I'd pick Owen up to walk across the street and then put him down to walk again. He didn't like it at all but I wasn't about to just let him walk across the street. Well I guess I got him too mad and I picked him up one time, he started crying, about 10 seconds into it he started turning blue, didn't breathe again and I started freaking out. I started yelling for help (fortunately I had my brothers and sisters with me) so I turned to Alyssa to call 911 and turned to Dallin to call KC (who was at home putting my birthday present together- happy birthday to me).

So I got to experience Owen not breathing, getting the worst look of fear in his eyes, going limp, and passing out right in front of me. Someone passing by stopped to help me. Thank you to the Good Samaritan for helping someone in need. I didn't even get to thank her because I was a mess when I got out of the ambulance with Owen and she probably wasn't even there anymore. But she helped me keep Owen's eyes Open and was able to assure me that he was still breathing through the experience. When the ambulance got there they tested everything and it all came back fine. We went to the ER again (not in the ambulance this time, less expensive that way and we were literally around the corner from the hospital).

The ER dr this time didn't even test Owen for anything. He pulled the labs from Thursdays episode, we explained ours this time, and he did the basic listen to his lungs and heart testing. He said that Owen has some very strong will and when he wants to will hold his breath an pass out. Apparently its a form of a tantrum. He wasn't concerned at all by what happened, while I was traumatized for life by seeing those frightened eyes of Owens and not being able to do anything.

Well we got home and again Owen was so exhausted that he slept for the rest of the night. I got right on the computer and started doing some medical research to find out what Owen was doing (no one really gave us a name for it). I found out that these are called Breath-Holding Spells. I searched WebMD for info on breath-holding spells and it described exactly what Owen was doing and what the spells were but it doesn't say how to prevent them. Apparently its a form of a tantrum that 0.1-5% of children throw and can last til they are 5-6 years old. It also said that these spells can happen as often as multiple times a day to 1 time a year and to just treat it the same way you would any tantrum. And you can't really prevent them.

Owen's pediatrician confirmed all of this info and we are getting some additional testing on his brain (EEG) to make sure there aren't any underlining causes of these spells. Other than that we get to drastically change our parenting style to try and keep Owen level and not prone to throwing a tantrum. And fortunately, for the most part, I can tell the difference between his cries. So hopefully, when he chooses to do this again (which WebMD said its more of a reflex, rather than on purpose) I'll be prepared for it and not freak out as much.

I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father's love through all of this. He wasn't going to take the experiences away but he put people around us to be able to help us get through the experience. The 2 pediatric dr's up at aspen grove, and lady on the sidewalk who stopped and helped, and all my amazing family (here and there) who have been support for KC and I. I'm grateful for all of it.