Becca’s big scare

What should have been a fun Memorial Day weekend turned into one of the scariest times of our lives.

On Thursday May 27 we headed down to Texas to spend the weekend with the Ferrells. Friday the 28th we got up and headed out to Six Flags. What should’ve been a 1 hour drive into Arlington was around 2 hours with traffic, roads flooding and accidents closing the freeway. We spent several hours at Six Flags with Dale, Katie and Kimball riding all the roller coasters they could stand. Justin and I took all the little kids on all the smaller rides we could stand. 

Then the rain came. After a while, we went to dinner and came back. The park was fairly empty and we got to go on lots more rides. We also got rain checks so now we can go back! 

The next day Becca had some diarrhea. We took the kids to the park and let them run off some energy. Becca had one last bout of diarrhea around 1:00 pm. She acted normally throughout the day and I pushed her to drink water to prevent dehydration. She didn’t eat as much as normal but had an apple and some snacks before bed.

Saturday night (early Sunday morning), Becca climbed into bed with us. She kept moving and waking me up so I took her to the bathroom thinking that was the problem. Around 5:30 AM she kept waking me up with fidgeting. Every few minutes her arms and legs would flail out and come back in, then she would be still for a few minutes. Around 5:40 it happened again and she started screaming. This woke up Dale who could see her face and realized she was having a seizure. The seizure continued and we decided to take her to the ER. In between each “seizure” she was frozen. She couldn’t respond or move. Her pupils were huge and her jaw was locked. 

I woke up Katie and Justin to tell them we had to leave. Justin and Dale gave Becca a Priesthood blessing. Justin had to hold our dog Shadow back as we left because Shadow was so freaked out about Becca. He was so worried about his little human.

 Dale carried her to the van and I held her while he drove to the hospital nearby...Hunt Regional Medical Center. She continued seizing throughout the drive and as I carried her into the ER. Dale followed after parking the car and filled out registration forms. They took us back to a partition and started trying to get an IV in her. She started moaning loudly each time her limbs started flailing. I climbed up into the bed with her and just held her. They moved us into a room where they finally got an IV in her and gave her Ativan. Soon, the seizure stopped and she fell asleep. 

The doctors checked her blood sugar which came back as “below 50”, so they checked it in the lab and it came back as 25! They immediately gave her a syringe of sugar something. Her blood sugar jumped up to the 300s but plummeted quickly. She was put on so many different dextrose mixtures just trying to stabilize her blood sugar which kept yo-yo-ing. She was taken for a CT scan after a chest X-ray and blood was drawn for many, many labs. I was overcome in that room watching these complete strangers do for my daughter what I was incapable of doing. They saved her life! 

Getting the IV in 

The doctor in the ER told us she would be transported to Children’s Dallas and we waited, and waited and waited for the ambulance. 

While we were waiting, the Ferrells got our kids ready for church. Katie took them and Justin stayed with the dogs and waited in case we needed something. When we got loaded on the ambulance, Dale headed back to the Ferrells to grab our bags and check on the kids. The ambulance ride was an hour long and very bumpy. Becca asked if we were on an airplane. She cried when they had to keep pricking her finger to check her blood sugars. 

Loading on the ambulance

By the time we got to the ER at Children’s Dallas, Becca had started to wake up. The doctor who initially saw her got her to giggle a bit and talk which was extremely comforting to hear. The questions raised were  whether the seizure had caused the blood sugar issue, or vice versa...among other theories. 

Dale arrived while we were in the ER and Becca talked him into sharing some baked Cheetos with her. She loved those Cheetos! Soon we were transferred upstairs to the endocrinology floor after doctors had decided she didn’t need to go to the neurology floor. We were on the 9th floor, and got there right before shift changes. After talking with many more doctors, nurses, residents, etc, Dale headed back to the Ferrell’s and Becca and I settled in for the night. She has been on Propanolol for the hemangioma on her lip, which was also questioned as a possible cause of her seizure/blood sugar drop. When she finally got her dose around midnight, I turned off the lights and climbed into bed with her. All Becca wanted to do was go back to the Ferrells and play with Libby. As we cuddled, she covered her eyes and cried. She had IVs in both arms and her fingers had been pricked countless times. It hurt her to move her left arm and she couldn’t do much with her right hand.

Resting in her room at Children’s Dallas

She slept great through the night...and I discovered how terribly uncomfortable hospital couches are. Around 4:00 AM Monday morning, her blood sugar levels had finally stabilized enough to move to finger pricks every 4 hours instead of 2 hours. By 8:00 AM the doctors decided she could come off IV fluids to see if she could maintain her blood sugar on her own. She ate a great breakfast and at 10:00 had still maintained her levels.  I met with the endocrinologist who diagnosed Becca with ketotic hypoglycemia. The doctor explained that episodes like this could happen again, especially if Becca gets sick and said to make sure (especially if Becca hasn’t eaten much) to get her a snack before bed.  I took her down to a play room where she played with toys until she discovered the crafts. She made a bead bracelet and painted a sea horse.. 

She loved the baked Cheetos at the hospital and ate them constantly while we were there! 

Eating baked Cheetos like a puppy

We went back to her room when the play room closed and shortly after getting her lunch were told by her nurse Roxana that we were being discharged. Becca was so excited to get those IVs out that she started trying to pull them out herself. She ran around the room gathering all her stuff and looked at her lunch tray and exclaimed “of course! My Jell-O!” I called Dale and let him know we were being discharged, and while we waited for him to come, we went to a different play room. They had even more beads there and Becca made a necklace. As we started walking down the hall to get our bags, Becca said “I love this hostible!” I was so grateful for that play room and for the chance she had to leave the hospital with a happy memory instead of walking away traumatized. 

In the play room

All she wanted to do when we left was go to a toy store, and back to the Ferrell’s. Within 5 minutes of leaving the hospital she was sound asleep. We did go to a toy store and she picked out a little white stuffed animal dog, and a matching one for Lily. We got back to the Ferrells and ate dinner, got the kids to bed and played a game. 

The next morning we got up at 7:something, ate breakfast and headed home because Dale had to be in court in Seminole at 1:30. We had been planning on going home Monday, but we were so exhausted and the Ferrell’s were our heroes in so many ways. 

We were so blessed to not have to worry about Kimball, Cameron, and Lily being safe and cared for. We could focus most of our energy on Becca and not have to shuffle our kids around. We spent lots of time calling, texting and updating our friends/family and were overwhelmed with the love they showed for her. My parents and brother Nate offered to come help with the other kids. Many prayers were offered on behalf of our little girl. 

She is acting like nothing ever happened, with plenty of energy and quick wits. She might get sick of all my hugs because I just can’t stop. Seeing her run around and play and smile fills me with so much joy. We are so blessed to have our little girl healthy and safe after such a scare. So many parents who experience that hospital don’t get to say the same and my heart breaks for them. 

At her follow-up with the Dr in OKC who prescribed her the propranolol for her hemangioma, she explained that because that medicine is a beta-blocker, when she had diarrhea, her body couldn’t recover and maintain blood sugars which led to the seizures. We’re hopeful that it was just a “perfect storm” of everything going wrong at the perfect time, and now that she’s off that medicine, we won’t have to face something so traumatic again.