Sandifer's Syndrome

Ok...a few weeks back, I wasn't necessarily feeling like super-mom...which is why I didn't blog about this sooner. Anyway..here it goes... Four weeks ago, I changed Britton's diaper and left her on my bed for a minute as I left her side. Shortly after that I heard a cry, that didn't sound like a normal cry...I ran in and found her on the floor. After she calmed down, she seemed to be ok. About 30 minutes later, I found what I thought was a bump forming on the back of her head. I called her pediatrician, got in for an evaluation, and she sent us to our local hospital for a CT of her head just to be sure everything was ok. I was shocked, and sick to my stomach to hear that she had a "small" skull fracture and small subdural hematoma underneath it. We ended up having to go by helicopter (due to traffic) to University Hospital in San Antonio where she could be monitored closer. She continued to do very well, and we were sent home about 36 hours later. She has continued to do excellent.

Last Wednesday, it was a "normal" day around the house. Chase was having lunch, and I had just fed Britton her lunch time bottle. She began to fuss, which is normal when she is ready to be left alone to nap. I put her in the nap nanny that we have in the living room. All of the sudden, I heard a very shrill cry...I immediately looked up from our dining area and saw her arms straight up in the air and her eyes were fixated up and to the right. I knew something wasn't right. I ran to her only to find her having what I thought was a seizure. I called 911 right away and they (ambulance, fire, police) were here within 5 minutes. We went to the local hospital where they repeated her CT scan and it showed everything to be great, and vastly improved from the first one a few weeks ago....they sent us home and told me to watch her (he wasn't "convinced" it was a seizure).

Over the next 12 hours, Britton vomitted two times which was very alarming to me. I had spoken with her pediatrician who told me that if she had another vomitting episode to take her to North Central Baptist hospital in San Antonio where a pedi neurologist is (who she wanted Britton to see anyway). We packed up on Thursday after the third vomitting episode and went to the ER.

We were admitted there, and did not leave until Saturday afternoon. They ordered an upper GI, and a 24 hour video EEG to monitor her for seizure activity. Of course she never had another "seizure" or vomitting episode while in the hospital. Upon test results, Britton was diagnosed with Sandifer's Syndrome. Basically this is a severe form of acid reflux that can present like a seizure. She had not exhibited any signs of reflux (as we knew what to look for because of Chase), so this was a shock to me. Apparently she had probably had mild reflux all along, but because we already did reflux precautions (again, bc of Chase), but since she is growing, and had recently increased her feedings, it got to a breaking point for her little body and the pain was so intense that it caused her body to stiffen up...basically, it stunned her system.

Although I still feel like a horrible mom for leaving my baby on the bed unattended, which led her to falling...maybe, just maybe this is what happened four weeks go and led her to fall off the bed....unfortunately we'll never know. The EEG results were negative (this means she did not have seizure activity during those 24 hours...Praise the LORD), and Britton was started on acid reflux medicine. Hopefully we will get this under control and never have another scary episode like that again.

This still isn't my most proud mommy moment, but I am blogging about this just in case any of you experience this in the future or know anyone who might experience this...Thank you to all of our family and friends who knew about this and prayed, and kept praying. Thank you to our wonderful friends and family whp helped care for Chase while I couldn't be at home during this time.

I do have to say, that our little hospital patient is the cutest by far!