Quite Possibly My Second Scariest Day as a Mother

My scariest moment as a mother was when I found Jeff, at just 8 weeks old, blue and choking on what we would later learn to be a round magnet. Tuesday's happenings came very close to that experience.

We had gotten in very late on Monday night. On Tuesday morning Jenna woke up very cranky and was crying in her bed. I thought it was from the crazy day before so I picked her up and carried her downstairs. I got her settled on the couch with a blanket and set out to get the boys dressed and out the door to the bus stop. All of a sudden Jenna just fell off the couch. I thought that was very strange but helped her back up and got the boys out the door. Jenna then let me know she needed to go potty, but she was was crying and fussing and not making her way to the potty. I went over to her and tried to lift her up to standing and she could not stand.

At first I thought she was being a stinker and doing the "rubber legs" thing kids do when they don't want to walk. But then she seemed to be serious. To avoid an accident I carried her and put her on the potty. I was folding laundry and could see her on the potty from where I was standing. That's when she told me the potty was "moving" and that her hands and feet were "wobbly". At this point I started to worry a little bit. Over the next 20-30 minutes I was still trying to figure out what was going on. Jenna had almost no motor control of her legs, feet, or hands. She could move them a little bit but she could not walk or even crawl. I called and left a message for the advice nurse on base. I called my mom. Both of them said go to the ER. Now I was in a panic. I called Dustin, found someone to keep Kelsey, and realized that my boys had missed the bus even though they were out there on time. Could anything else go wrong? Never ask that question!

So Dustin got home, we dropped Kelsey off at the sitters and the boys at school and then headed to the ER. By now Jenna speech was slurred and she was saying random things. Her eyes were glassy, she still could not walk, and was holding her hands in strange positions. Dustin actually thought she might be drunk and asked if she's gotten into any medicines at home. I told him, no, I got her right out of bed and she had been with me all morning. As I was getting Jenna checked in at the counter, Dustin had the thought to check Jenna's hair for ticks. As you read later posts you'll know why. This was a total blessing from the Lord. Sitting right there in the ER, Dustin found an enormous tick in Jenna's hair. Now I was even more sick to my stomach.

They say you learn something new every day. I wish I didn't learn everything I learned in the ER that day.

Jenna was diagnosed with Tick Paralysis.

You can learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick_paralysis It is extremely rare. Jenna will probably be the only case in Montana this entire year. The doctor said there are only about 12 cases a year in all of North America. How special is that for us? Anyways, the treatment for Tick paralysis is to simply remove the tick and let the body naturally remove the toxins. It worked.

They removed the tick, which was disgustingly huge and then moved us up to Pediatrics for observation. Her eyes brightening was the first sign of improvement. Then normal speech slowly returned. It was pretty sad, though, when they brought her lunch. She wanted to do it herself, but watching her was difficult. She would scoop the food into the spoon fairly easliy, but then she looked like she was playing "airplane" with herself. She just couldn't get the spoon to her pretty little mouth. She also had trouble returning the spoon to the bowl.

Long story long, they kept her until about 4pm and thought she had made enough progress to head home. She was barely able to walk again at that point. The following video was taken at a stop we made on the way home. That is really how well she could walk at this point and it seemed like a miracle to me after seeing my little girl without the use of her legs.

Now she is able to walk normally again but the bite wound has gotten infected. That required another trip into the doctor yesterday and we're on antibiotics for the next 10 days. The CDC is highly concerned about recent increases in tick borne diseases. They are rapidly becoming one of their highest priorities. In our family checking each other for ticks is no longer a laughing matter, that's for sure!