"I will be the center of attention...no matter what I have to do!" - Calleigh

On Wednesday the 10th of October, I dropped Calleigh off at her Grandpa's so that I could attend a school function at my University's main campus in Stephenville (2-2 1/2 hours from Killeen). Halfway through my event, I could feel my cell phone vibrating. I checked it and it was Chris. I figured he was just calling to see how things were going consdering he could not come with me. My friend Rebecca came with me and we were looking forward to having dinner together to catch up after the event. On our way out to my car after the event ended I noticed I had a voicemail and it was from Chris. Chris NEVER leaves me a message...let me repeat NEVER leaves me a message...I knew immediately that something was wrong with one of our kids. I call Chris and my heart was racing. It had to be Cal, Cam is healthy as an ox...I knew it was Calleigh. Sure enough Chris told me that Grandpa had taken Cal outside to swing and when he brought her in, he noticed that she was burning up. Pete called Chris at work at 557 pm and told him that she was very hot. Chris packed up his stuff and left his office. Not five minutes after Pete called Chris, Chris called Pete back and he said that Calleigh was seizing and he was on the phone with 911. I was fairly calm at this point. I knew it was a febrile seizure, the paramedics were on their way, I figured everything would be ok. Chris called me back and said that Calleigh's first seizure had stopped but once the paramedics got her in the ambulance, she began seizing again and this time they could not stop it; they were going to put her onto a helicopter and airlift her to Scott and White, a hospital 30 minutes from Killeen. Massive breakdown. That is all I have to say. Thank God that Rebecca was with me because I immediately became hysterical. She told me to pull over and I pulled into the suicide lane and began to get of the car...she said, "no Cassie, that parking lot." The great thing about Rebecca is that she has this calming aura that surrounds her. I was in meltdown mode...yet she kept me calm and even made me giggle on the very long 2 1/2 drive from Stephenville to Temple. I renamed her Danika Patrick on that drive!

From the time I left Stephenville and on the drive to Temple, Chris and I talked many times. Chris finally arrived at his Dad's house to find one fire engine, one ambulance, one helicopter)which landed on a main road WS Young) and one police car. Calleigh was still in the ambulance, still seizing, not breathing, and unconscious (this may be inconsistent, but this is what we got from the situation. I was not there and Cal was in bad shape so Chris got what info he could). The paramedics could not get an IV in and they could not get her intubated due to her trachea which kept tightening up every time they tried to get the tube down. I beleive they tried twice and the second time she started to vomit up her pedisure...through the mouth and nose. They had to suction to keep her from aspirating since that can be extremely dangerous. They ended up "bagging" her (the only reason I even understand this term is because I am a Grey's Anatomy freak...isn't that sad??!!), and doing an IO=Intraosseous IV. This is when they drill a small hole into a bone in the leg (well in Calleigh's case...I am not sure about all the time) and administer the drugs through there. The are only used in extreme medical emergencies and they are very temporary. They finally got the seizure under control and told Chris to go ahead to Scott and White. The paramedics told him to drive safe and they would be leaving within minutes and probably still arrive there before him. Chris and Pete left, I was on my way from Stephenville and little did we know what would happen next.

Chris waited and waited at Scott and White. I kept calling and asking if she was there, no one in the ER could tell him where she was and my Aunt Laurie and Mom in Sacramento were calling every hospital in a 50 mile radius. Finally, when I got to S&W, they were sending Chris upstairs to the PICU, room 446, Cal was on her way. What happened was, she was way to unstable to go in the helicopter so they had to take her to Metroplex to stabilize her. While at Metroplex, no one knew who are baby girl was. They had no name for her and had no clue where her parents were. The Chaplin at Metroplex was trying to hunt us down and my Aunt Laurie did enough calling that she figured out where Cal was and let the people at Metroplex know her name and where Chris and I were waiting. It was a mess.

Chris, Pete and I waited in Cal's PICU room for her to arrive. Coincidentally, we had a view of the helicopter pad and so Chris and I sat there anxiously awaiting her arrival from Metroplex. When we heard that helicopter approaching and saw it finally land, I broke down and I also saw Chris's eyes well with tears. We were so relieved that she was finally there. She was brought upstairs by the two amazing paramedics on helicopter duty (we will get to them later) and had a stream of people waiting for her. They drew blood, checked stats, and tried to get an IV started (unsuccessful). She was on oxygen and completely out of it. SO SCARY...let me tell you! I couldn't help but cry every few minutes and it was so hard to look at her. Her arms and legs were black and blue from where she had been poked. She had this plastic tube thing down her nose, she had a little tiny oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth, she had blood in her hair, on her feet and arms, she had snot and pedisure dried all over her face...she had been through the ringer. Thank God for Dr. Hardy who came in especially for her and her wonderful nurse Jeremy. They took great care of her.

Dr. Hardy ended up having to put in a central line and it took him over an hour because her veins are so tiny. She was completely asleep for this procedure and numbed from the waist down due to the fact that it is a very uncomfortable procedure. Calleigh spent the remainder of Wednesday, Thursday and most of Friday in the PICU. She was diagnosed with RSV, which is a very dangerous virus/form of the cold, that affects mostly children under age one. It consist of typical cold symptoms: runny nose, cough and fever. Calleighs fever spiked to 105 and 104 on Thursday and Friday respectively. On Friday morning, Calleigh had an EEG to check seizure activity. She was given antibiotics, an increased dose of her regular seizure med and another seizure med called Dilantin. The second seizure med was to keep any seizures from occurring when her fever spiked.

Late Friday afternoon she was moved to the acute care Pediatric ward and that is where she stayed until 10 pm this evening (Sunday). She had fevers consistently all weekend until Sunday, when they went down to 99.6 (very consistent). Her EEG results came via her neurologist on Saturday morning. He said that he found no new seizure activity and her brain was very "tired" from the seizures she had on Wednesday. We are to keep up the increased dose of Keppra and see him in a month.

I think that is about all...she is still fighting with a terrible cough and it probably will not go away for another 10 days. The fever is gone for now, but we will be keeping a very close eye on our little Princess. She is home and in her bed where she belongs...2 feet from Mom Mom's face. I swear that I will never leave the city again without her...and no one can change my mind...so just go with it until I feel better. I think that was the hardest thing for me. Guilt overwhelmed my mind that she was alone and I was not with her...because that is my job...to be with her. But there were wonderful people there to take care of her and I know that Daddy broke every law on that drive home from Georgetown to get to her!

Thanks to Brandon at Fire Station 5 in Killeen and everyone else from that station that was there for my daughter since I couldn't be...I heard from a few that he was AMAZING!!! Also thanks to Elena (I think I may have gotten her name wrong) who said that, "Girlfriend made her sweat..." and apparently that does not happen to her often and her equally fabulous partner Lynn who took care of our baby girl as if she was their own. These wonderful women even came back up to the PICU Thursday morning to check on her. All of you don't know what it means to us that you were there for our daughter. Things could have ended badly, but you did everything you knew to do to get her to us and assist in making her well. And of course many thanks to the awesome staff at S&W for doing all that they could to help in making Cal well. Cal wants to send a special thanks to her hottie nurse Jeremy who gave her her very first sponge bath!

THANKS AND HUGS!!!

Crazy, crazy life we lead. Cal knows how to get our attention that is for damn sure. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes...we appreciate more than you will ever know. I wish I could call every single one of you and thank you personally...so many hugs and kisses for you all...XOXOXO