We had a bit of a scare last night. James was in his crib and started doing something weird. At first, I thought it was one of his infantile spasms, but then I noticed that it was different than his normal spasms. Instead of raising both arms like he usually does during one of his spasms, he was just lifting his right shoulder and right hip. He was not raising his right arm. Because he was just doing it on one side, I was questioning if it was a different type of infantile spasm, or if he was having a stroke.
Stacy put a call into the neurology answering service to have the neurologist on call give us call us back. Fortunately, it was one of the neurologists in the practice that was familiar with James. He said that he thinks it sounds like a partial seizure and not a stroke, but to keep an eye on him overnight and give him an update in the morning.
Stacy and I worked in shifts so that one of us could keep an eye on James while the other one slept. James didn’t have any more of those ‘partial seizures’ or whatever they were. But I do wonder if it was a stroke. With all of his deficits, how would we even know?
In other news, James had some difficulty breathing today. He was very moist and sounded congested, but his sats stayed in the 90s. Stacy gave him a breathing treatment and tried out our new cough assist machine that we got last week from home health. It was ordered by pulmonology to see if it would help clear mucous secretions from James’ throat. Since James doesn’t know how to cough, this machine is supposed to mimic a cough for him. We’re not sure if it will work for James…it seems like it is going to suck out his tongue…but we’ll give it a try.
