The "Event"

Note: All information in this post, prior to when I met Bailey at the hospital, is taken from witness accounts but as far as we know this is the sequence of events that led our girl to the hospital:

After school she went to the auditorium for call backs for the school play (Arsenic & Old Lace).  She did her tryout and went into the bathroom to put on her work shirt so she could go work her scheduled shift.  She was standing in the auditorium among friends putting on her name tag when she sat down.  She sat there holding her head for a minute and then tried to put her glasses on.  She missed her face with the glasses and slumped over into a laying down position.  Her friends were asking her what was wrong and trying to help her but she was unresponsive.  The school nurse was called and she called 911.

After they called the paramedics they called Paul (Bay's dad) to tell him to come to the school.  They then tried to call me - I was at school and unable to answer my phone.  When Paul arrived at the school he found Bay laying on the floor of the auditorium with the paramedics at here side.  She was barely audible and showing no signs of having an ability or desire to get up off the floor.

In the meantime I had realized that my phone was blowing up so I checked the messages and found out Bay was being taken to the hospital.  I called Paul and he updated me.  She was sort of answering yes or no questions but didn't seem to be able to get up or move.  I told them to get her loaded up and take her to Fairview Southdale.

I got to the hospital before the ambulance.  It was the most excruciatingly long 20 minutes of my entire life.  Once the ambulance arrived they made me wait another 15 minutes before I could go see her.  Her dad and I sat in the waiting room tapping our toes and plotting to sneak in the next time someone opened the locked door that led to our daughter.  Fortunately it didn't come to that!

Bailey's initial symptoms were those of someone who had had a severe stroke.  Drooping of the right side of her face, no feeling or movement in either her right leg or arm.  She would respond to questions that required a yes or no answer but that was about it and even these answers were unreliable.  She would change her response pretty much every time you asked the question.

The doctors did a CT and a CTA scan.  Both were negative. They ran blood tests looking for abnormalities and they were all negative.  They did a urinalysis looking for drugs and it too was negative.  There was just no explanation for these symptoms.  The Dr. explained that there is a thing called a Conversion Disorder that is a physical manifestation of stress that has symptoms that mimic a stroke.  When a person gets too stressed there body reacts and it is often stroke-like.  Since Fairview Southdale does not have a pediatrics ward they decided to transport her to Minneapolis Children's Hospital.  So, away we go.