Paige was diagnosed with encephalitis. We were told she's lucky that we were able to bring her to the hospital before her condition became irreversible. Initially, she had fever and stomachache. Eventually, she started complaining of headache and she started sleeping 24/7. We'd try to wake her up but she was only able to manage to stay up for 15 minutes tops and she'd go back to sleep.
Sussette put her on antibiotics but her condition didn't change. We went to see a GI doctor and we were told he didn't see anything wrong with her - or at least her condition wasn't something he could address. Sette told us that Paige may have encephalitis and she told us to see the neurologist. Dr. De Los Reyes immediately instructed us to have Paige confined and scheduled for CT scan and other series of neurological tests.
It was heartbreaking. Paige was screaming all the time. She was scared of the nurses and the needles and the antibiotics. She didn't want to have a CT scan so I had to stay with her inside the room. I got into an argument with the heartless bitch working the computers inside the EEG laboratory which Paige had to go through 3 times! I had to wash her hair three times for that because her scalp was supposed to be cleaned.
I had to comfort her while the neurologist tried a spinal tap procedure without anesthesia but Paige kept buckling, so she couldn't do it. The anesthesiologist who tried to do it failed too. Fortunately, Sette was there and she volunteered to do the procedure which she was able to do with only one attempt.
We had people helping us out, but I realized some things then:
1. That there are people who would visit us just because they are obligated to do so. I think they are hypocrites. These are the people who came just so they can get over the whole thing and scratch it out from their To-Do list.
2. There are people who truly cares. Curiously enough, these are people I didn't imagine caring.
3. Families - at the end of the day, they'd be the ones who'd be there for you. Of course, not everyone in your family can be counted on. Erbe and I, once again, learned it the hard way.
Basically, I learned who I can trust to be there for me when life turns from crazy to shitty. Anyway, we stayed in the hospital for 8 days. Paige is very lucky to have people praying for her. She's doing great now. Still recovering, but doing a whole lot better. Please God, keep her healthy so we'd never have to go back to the hospital again for her - or for Riley.
