Murphy’s Law of Triple Disaster

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The first disaster that initiated the rule of ‘everything happens in threes’ was that I received a letter from the county auditor. They never got our marriage papers. Something happened to them on their way from the courthouse to the county auditor and if it turns out our mail carrier works that neighborhood, I’m going to scream. The auditor has the license request on file but no license so I can’t get a certified copy required to change my name or get health insurance. Kurt has already initiated the health insurance paperwork through his employer, so I have insurance, but I’ll loose it in 60 days if this isn’t resolved by then. I called the judge that performed the ceremony and he wrote us a letter to give to Kurt’s employer. Hopefully that will keep me insured if this takes longer than 60 days.

On Friday, I took Sophia to the doctor for her eighteen-month baby wellness check up and it went really well. The nurse went through her usual routine of asking a bunch of milestone type questions and I felt awesome because I could answer “yes” to most of them. Does she drink from a cup? Yep. Does she walk with confidence? Absolutely! Does she help take her clothes off? Yes, especially her socks. She also tries to put her clothes back on by herself. Does she put words together to form phrases? She only has three words, “Da-DEE”, “key”, and “hi”. “Da-DEE” is obviously Kurt. “Key” is a Sophia derivative of kitty, but for Sophia means any four legged furry creature that ranges in size from mouse to moose. Our husky and malamute are both “key”. “Hi” is a greeting only reserved for Kurt, our indoor ‘key’, and I. “Hi” is usually accompanied by vigorous, almost frantic, waving. She’ll even wave at the cat, and he’s been known to wave back, though he doesn’t seem as happy. “Hi” is also occasionally followed by, “Da-DEE”, which for the nurse counts as a phrase. Yay!

The doctor appointment disaster hit when the nurse left and the doctor came in. His first question for me was, “Do you have any concerns?” Up until this point, my only concern was Sophia’s lack of words. Words have finally started to spring up. She’s still behind in that area according to my personal chart, but between her three words and the three baby signs she uses at least we’re communicating better. So my concern this time was something that had been bothering me since Sophia was ten or eleven months old, the bouts of what looked like pure baby rage. Only her rage is completely silent. Even after I told the doctor’s answer to Kurt, he still thinks Sophia is just experiencing a surge of adrenalin.

Three things made Kurt’s explanation not sit well with me. First, the occurrences are random. There are many time that there isn’t even a cause for frustration or anger at all. Second, when Sophia tenses up it’s ALL of her muscles including her jaw. Something about a toddler’s jaw locked in an open position without her making any nose seemed very odd. She’s a toddler, when a toddler’s mouth is open sound comes out, ALWAYS. Third, Sophia acts as if nothing just happened after a ‘surge of adrenalin’. I would think that a toddler would take at least a few minutes to calm down after an adrenalin surge.

The description I gave of Sophia’s episodes of muscle tensing led the doctor to confirm my fear. Those not from a surge of adrenalin. They’re seizures. He told me what type of seizure, but for the life of me, I can’t remember. It’s probably a good thing though, otherwise I’d be freaking out at all the descriptions, causes, treatments, and side effects listed on webmd.com. It may seem odd but part of me is just relieved that it isn’t fits of rage. I feared having to take her to years of therapy to control her anger or something, but of course, seizures bring a different set of fears. We just have to wait and watch that they don’t get worse. I hope that this is something that will disappear with age, preferably before she starts school.

Later the same day I received a call from the veterinary clinic. Chelan, our ten-year-old husky has been drinking water as if we live in the desert. She’s drinking about two and a half gallons of water a day! The results from her blood and urine tests had come back and the vet narrowed down the possibilities to the three most likely. The first is a chemical imbalance in the brain. We love Chelan but she has to be one of the dumbest dogs ever. She survives in our household on cuteness alone. Since bringing her home from the pound, we suspected a malfunctioning brain. The second possible cause is a malfunctioning gland, the name of which escapes me but it’s near the thyroid. The third is a form of cancer. In the morning, I’ll be setting up an appointment for further testing. It’ll take another week to get those results.

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24 thoughts on “Murphy’s Law of Triple Disaster”

  1. Dear Erica,

    It concerns me that the doctor has labeled them as seizures. I would be interested in knowing what type of seizures. I am not that knowledgeable in these matters but has she had that innoculation that they are trying to link to autism? Remember, if you don’t get answers that satisfy you keep trying. Doctors are not God, even tho they sometimes think so, and they do make mistakes and misdiagnosis. I was thinking that maybe if you could get a couple of pics when she is having these episodes to show to the doctor it might help then to understand what is happening.

    • Gramma Claudia – I described to him what was going on and when I mentioned that we thought it was an adrenalin surge he was positive that it wasn’t. They can’t diagnose seizures (as far as I know) without looking at the brain and they don’t do that with toddlers, probably because they can’t hold still. I can’t remember what type of seizure he said it was, but from what I read on WebMD I’m guessing it was some form of “Tonic seizure“. Our doctor is really good and I trust him. He was very quick in answering what form of seizure it sounded like from my description, which made me confident that he’s heard this description before and is familiar with it. I have the video camera ready to go, but these things happen so fast I’m not sure I’ll be able to capture it unless except by pure accident.

  2. Awww.sounds like you have had a rough week…Does it sound like the seizures are something your little one might outgrow?
    I hope everything is ok with her…

    We have no marriage liscence either…it was never sent to us…

    In our situation it hasn’t affected a lot…except my drivers liscence is in the wrong name…I shouls probably fix that since we have been married 11 years…LOL

    I hope your week gets better….

  3. First I can’t believe she is 18 months old! I remember her from when she was just a little one.

    They say things come in threes and if that’s so, then maybe your set of threes are over for awhile. We can hope, right?

    I know what you mean about webmd. Sometimes the info you find there can be frightening. I’m sure a way will be worked out to deal with the seizures. Hugs to her and your doggy!

    Skittles´s last blog post..Heads Or Tails # 85 – List Three

  4. Crap. Erica, we’ll be thinking of you this week. I can totally relate to the webmd thing. Once we heard about the heart issue with the coming little one I was all over the web feeling sicker by the minute with everything I read. Whatever happens I know you are doing a great job along with Kurt. I can totally relate to the comment about being worried about anger issues. Chloe is as stubborn as her daddy and that worries me :) Chloe too isn’t using enough words. Henry “claims” he got her to say socks today. I’m thinking he just doesn’t want to call the ped about a possible speech delay, lol. I hope your doggy gets better too. Did the vet mention diabetes? Our old cat Rusty had that and heart disease. The poor bugger had to get twice daily insulin shots and heart pills. He was the best cat we ever had and I still miss him.

    • Susan Anderson – Thank you. :)

      The vet didn’t mention diabetes. I think that may have been ruled out as a top contender through the blood or urine test. I still don’t know the results of the second test. I called the office today to find out if they forgot about me and was told that they need to consult with a specialist. Apparently the results have confused them. this sounds like it could get REALLY expensive. :S

  5. I’m sorry. Did he refer you to get her an EEG? That will tell you for sure. WebMD is NOT the best resource and you may scare yourself to death. Kids can grow out of this stuff quite often.

    SUPERHUGZxxxxxxxoooooxxxxxooooxxxxxooooo

    JaniceNW´s last blog post..The Blues

    • JaniceNW – All the doctor said was to monitor her and if it gets worse in any way whether it’s frequency, duration, or intensity. He hasn’t referred us to anywhere for anything yet.

      Thank you for the comment. :)

  11. Hi, I stumbled upon your blog by googling “baby tenses up” before calling my ped to see what they say. We’ve been seeing the same symptoms as you are in our 12.5 month old daughter, except her face doesn’t get red, for at least 6 months now. I thought it was her way of stretching o yawning at first (because her mouth was open and it didn’t seem to cause her any discomfort), but my wife is concerned, so we’ll look into this more seriously now.

    • Dima – I’m glad my blog post may have been of help to you. I hope everything works out well for everyone. Thanks for visiting my site and for the comment. :)