Matthew's first seizure

There are moments we never forget and as the parent of a young child we are always concerned for their welfare and have them on our mind just about every minute of the day. It doesn't matter if we are at work or running errands when you become a parent you are a parent 24/7, 365 days a year for the rest of your life. It at times seems overwhelming but a responsibility gladly accepted and one taken with immense pride and heartfelt joy.

I was working at the office and it was around 7:15 pm as it was not unusual to work some late nights. My wife was working too so it was my mother-in-law at home watching Matthew and we were living in a rented house in Levittown, NY.

As I was working on completing a financial statement I received a frantic call from my mother-in-law screaming that Matthew was not breathing and his body was limp. I immediately told her to call 911 but she seemed reluctant or did not understand so I told her I will be home shortly and quickly left the office and headed for my car. I was quite shaken up not sure what was going on and I reached out to a neighbor to run over to our house to check in on Matthew and Terry, my mother-in-law. She said she would head over to the house right away. I also called my sister Kathy who is a nurse and told her that something happened to Matthew but I was not sure what since I was not home. I asked her if she could check in on him and she said she would. As I arrived home I quickly ran into the house and was greeted by my neighbor and sister and they pulled me over and had me sit while my sister said she had seen Matthew and that he is breathing and getting color back in his face and was comfortably resting with grandma watching him and it was her opinion based on what was described to her that Matthew had a grand mal seizure and that we should schedule to see a pediatric neurologist and if he has another seizure to take him to the emergency room. I asked her if she thought we should take him to the hospital now and she felt that he was doing better having come out of the seizure and was resting comfortably. My sister felt if we took him to emergency we would probabaly just be waiting for a long time to be seen and it was best to speak with a pediatric neurologist and try to schedule an emergency appointment in the next few days at Schneider's Children's hospital. She said it is more than likely Matthew had a grand mal seizure and will have to be administered medication to help control the seizures.

I checked in on Matthew with my sister by my side and saw him resting and in good hands with grandma by his side. I asked her if she spoke to Maria and she indicated that she could only leave a message. I tried to call her and managed to get her and asked if she checked her messages and she said she was just about to call when I did. I told her Matthew had a seizure based on what Kathy told me and told her to come home now. She said she was on her way.

It was a long night as I was very worried and not sure what to expect. Matthew did sleep the night as the seizure must have exhausted him. Maria and I had him sleep in our bed and we monitored him through the night.

First thing in the morning I called Schneider's Children's hospital to schedule an emergency appointment as soon as possible since our son apparently suffered a grand mal seizure and we were very concerned about it. The operator transferred the call to Pediatric neurology where I spoke of our situation and we were scheduled an appointment for Thursday which was a few days away and I asked her what we should do if he suffers another one before then and she advised we take him to the emergency at Schneider's if we encountered that. She scheduled the appointment for early afternoon so I arranged with my office to take the full day so I could make the needed appointment with my wife and they were very understanding and accomodating. I now had another area of investigation now to read up on which was alarming and I started researching on the internet grand mal seizures and epilepsy and I wanted to make sure we are doing everything we possibly can to help Matthew with this condition. I was really starting to rely on others more as this seemed a bit overwhelming to me and I was very concerned for our little boy.