Melanie's infrequent seizures have followed a couple of patterns for at least a year: Either we hear and find her face-down in bed, full-blown tonic-clonic (grand mal), or if she's awake it would start slowly with the eyes and then generalize at some point. Well, Dravet doesn't like you to get too comfortable with any kind of pattern for too long.
Last night, as I was preparing dinner, Melanie was passing back and forth through the kitchen shaking maracas. Grandma Johnson and I were right near her, smiling at her as she passed through. Suddenly she fell back into a full tonic-clonic, thankfully with a bag of clothing right behind her and not a door frame. Nick laid her down, while I got the midazolam sprayed up her nose within a minute. The convulsions stopped within a minute, and she fought off the remnants of the seizure for a few more minutes.
Dad sat with her in front of a football game for over half an hour, while she rested. Within 10 minutes she was opening her eyes a bit, and within 20 minutes she was exclaiming at the game, "oh no! Woah!" She needed help with dinner, but boy oh boy, I've never seen her recover so fast! Today she was not showing significant lapses in motor, and her speech was just a bit sub par. Her nose is getting congested and she's cranky and edgy, so I'm thankful it was not a "random" seizure. Haven't had one without illness since February 2011. I'm still nervous that it may be the stomach bug I came down with Thursday night, but so far we're just seeing stuffiness. I'll take a head cold over a stomach thing any day! For myself of course, but especially for my little girl who needs to keep her meds in her body and who has never thrown up before...
It's like night and day, comparing this new rescue med to the worthless diastat we were using for years! No doubt, if we were still using that stuff, it would have lasted at least 20 minutes, we may have ended up in the ER, and she would be unable to even walk today.
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