Charice had a seizure Dec. 19, 2008

School had got out early that day as it was the beginning of Christmas break. What a way to begin the break!

Charice, Chantilly, and I were shopping at Macey's grocery store when Chantilly and I noticed Charice was not behind us. We walked back an aisle or two to find her on the floor having a seizure. There was a man halfway up the aisle that seemed to have seen it happening. He didn't think she had hit her head or anything as a box nearby seemed to have broken her fall. The seizure must have lasted 2-3 minutes. I think I remained pretty calm. I knew with seizures that there is not much you can do besides make sure they do not hurt themselves. I put my hand under her head so she was not banging it on the hard floor and tried to talk to her, but she was not aware of her surroundings for a long time. The hard part was not having her coherent for most of the next two hours. I didn't realize it took so long to come back out of it! There also happened to be a nurse shopping at Macey's who
came to help while Charice was still having her seizure. It was nice to have someone professionally knowledgeable so close at hand. Another couple came up behind us and asked if we wanted them to call 9-1-1. I told him I wasn't sure since I knew not all
seizures require that. He went ahead and called. It was nice that he did. I'm glad to have all the assurances of the professionals. The paramedics were there quickly. (It helps too that Macey's is just across the street from the hospital.) She was blue from
lack of oxygen, so they gave her oxygen and took a blood sample. Not knowing what was going on (including what she was doing), Charice was thrashing around, not wanting the oxygen mask on and making a mess of the blood sample.

Chantilly had a hard time watching all of this. She was obviously worried about her sister. A store manager named Steve tried to get her a candy or something, but Chantilly was not interested. In our shopping, (among other things) we had gotten a container of cottage cheese and a bag of cheese puffs. Since Steve could not convince Chantilly to get a candy, I suggested those-- which I felt would be better anyway since we were hungry and had expected to be going home for dinner quickly. I told Steve we would pay him back, but he said not to worry about it. How nice. On the way out to the ambulance, Chantilly decided to get a Kit-Kat as well. We rode in the ambulance with Charice to keep her company. We talked to her and thought we had some response from her, but she does not remember the ambulance ride at all. She was surprised later when we told her that she had ridden in a ambulance. The paramedics gave both Charice and Chantilly a teddy bear to hold. (Actually, Chantilly's looks like the puppy Marley from John Grogan’s book/ movie.)

The seizure occurred about 4:25 or 4:30PM. It was about 5:00PM when I got a chance to call Brian and let him know we were at the hospital. He and Christian were there by 5:30. They stayed for a while and then the two of them took Chantilly home for dinner and to let Teresa know what was going on as well. (Teresa had been watching a movie at home while the rest of us had run a couple of "quick" errands.) Charice received an IV while she was there. A Cat Scan showed nothing wrong with her brain. We
do not know what caused the seizure and we hope that it does not happen again. Before she went in for the Cat Scan, Charice had just fallen asleep and I was kind of sad to have to disturb her for that. When she came out of the Cat Scan though, I soon had a
very silly grin, because my little girl was back! She was talking my ear off about that strange machine! Her bright eyes, smiles, and chattiness were back! It only took about five minutes before they were telling us her results of the Cat Scan and also the blood
showed she was low in potassium, which they thought was strange and gave her some in a some apple juice which it took her until the next morning to drink the whole thing. Brian came back to the hospital about that time with some food for me and a book. Then we left. We went to Macey's to get the van. I had Brian take Charice home while I went in Macey's to get the things we had been shopping for and to let the manager, Steve, know that Charice was okay. I was back home at 8:00PM straight up. We spent quite a bit of time talking as a family going through the whole event so that everyone, especially Charice, would know exactly what had happened. They went to bed about 9:30, but before that, Charice had been up and dancing around plenty! I was a amazed.

It was scary to have her have a seizure. It came out of nowhere. They say it’s common to not know the cause and also to not have another. I hope it never happens again. She brags about having had a seizure! She’s a survivor!