Friday, September 23, 2011

Yesterday, I was getting ready for work when I got a call from my mom. “Alyssa....” Oh god, not my name followed by that hesitant silence I was so familiar with. Something bad had obviously happened. “Trevor had a seizure. We’re in the ambulance on the way to Spectrum Hospital.”

Apparently while at my aunt’s surprise 50th birthday dinner party, before the surprise even took place, a lady came up and stuck her hand out to introduce herself to Trevor. He must have forgotten he can barely move his right arm and went to reach for hers when all of the sudden his arms stiffened, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he began having a seizure. He started vomiting and twitching. The seizure lasted about 2-3 minutes and he was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

When I got to the hospital about an hour later, besides looking a little tired and sweaty and wearing a gown, Trevor appeared perfectly normal. And by normal, I mean he was acting the same as he would have pre-seizure, lying there, calmly watching baseball on TV, not paying attention to anything around him.

At first, he seemed to be responding to questions just as he would before the seizure, with an unconfident “sure” or “alright.” My mom told him to say the alphabet and he repeated (with his kindergardener lisp), “one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-‘leven-twelve-I don’t know.”

Then the phlebotomist came in and asked Trevor his date of birth. He quickly answered, “May 8, 1988,” which he’s never been able to repeat so well. He high-fived both of our little brothers when they entered the room. He told my dad, “Have to potty.” When I told him I loved him, he was able to repeat “Too” and then “I love you Alyssa too.”

At first, after the seizure, he was completely unable to move his right side. Later, he could lift it up a foot. This morning, he could lift it above his head, which he's never been able to do. It’s almost as if this seizure straightened something out in Trevor's brain, as if he’s somehow actually a little better now.

So yes, yesterday's episode was extremely scary and yes, we all thought Trevor was going to die, but apparently it wasn’t so bad after all. The CT scan and blood-work came out fine. His pupils were responsive and everything was normal. When we got home at 11:30 p.m., he seemed just a stubborn and ornery as usual, so everything must be alright. I think he was just, yet again, trying to be the center of attention. The little emergency room visit that brought the rest of us tears brought Trevor laughter.

Brain injury or not, Trevor will always be an asshole who enjoys keeping us on our toes all the time. The most terrifying thing to me is that we don’t know when his next seizure is going to be. According to the doctor, it could be in 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days or 10 years from now. He could never have one again in his entire life. But we don’t know...

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