"Where Rita?"

That was the sweetest thing I heard for a long time. It set my mind at ease in a huge way.

Gracie had a seizure Friday night. It started out as a tonic-clonic (full-body seizure) and then morphed into an absence seizure. It was a relatively short seizure by Gracie's standards - only about 12 minutes - but it was not her normal seizure. Her breathing was shallow and she seemed to be fighting to come out of the seizure. We had already called for an ambulance and they were on their way when she came out of the seizure. Grace was out of the seizure enough to try to pull her arms away as they tried to check her vitals and run an IV. Typically, when she is that alert, she will also tell them NO as she swats at them. I usually take that as my sign that she will be alright - when she is alert enough to fight.

The folks at the ER checked her out and tried several times to get her to respond but she could not get any words out - she could only grunt. It looked like she was trying to talk but nothing was coming out for her. Several times they tried to rouse her and get her to respond but she was not very responsive. I must admit that I was starting to get a bit worried. After we were in the ER for about 2 hours, I picked her up so we could change her and change the bed. She was fairly limp. And then out of nowhere, she perked up, picked up her head, looked at me and then looked at Tom and said, 'Where Rita?'. Grace was going to be OK. Rita was asleep in the chair curled up in a pile of coats and jackets.

We stayed a bit longer in the ER to make sure that Grace was back to normal, or as they call it, baseline. In no time at all was Grace up and asking for something to drink and something to eat. We were all back home shortly thereafter.

Grace has no fever Friday night. As sometimes happens, the seizure is a warning that the illness is coming. By Saturday morning, Grace was running a fever and was congested. She was tired, cranky and miserable but she was going to be alright! We will watch this cold to make sure it doesn't get much worse. We have been pumping her full of Tylenol and Motrin to keep the fevers from spiking. Fortunately, it seems to be a cold that has invaded our house and not the flu - something else we are quite grateful about!!