Growing Concern

I got up early and was at work by 7:30 on Monday so I can get a headstart to the day. But I couldn't get anything done, as I had this bad feeling about Isabella. I googled children, headaches and tremors and none of the hits brought up anything good. Julianne called me shortly after she dropped the kids off at school. She talked with Isabella's teacher who did mention that she just noticed some strange behavior from Isabella just on Friday. Mrs. Stelly brought out some of Isabella's writing samples and up till last week, her handwriting was typical. But on Friday, you could see a noticable change in her handwriting as it was much lighter and much shakier. Mrs. Stelly thought nothing of it at the time, because she thought Isabella may have been sick. She even mentioned that Isabella had been swinging on the monkey bars earlier in the week.

At 9:30, Mrs. Stelly called Julianne because Isabella complained of a headache and had started to walk funny. We had an appointment with the pediatrician at 1 PM, but Julianne wanted to get her in right away. She gave me a call to update me from the doctors office. The doctors suggested that we immediately go to the Emergency Room to have an MRI done. Julianne took Isabella up to Bridgeport Hospital. I made plans to jump on the next train home to pick up Annalise so we can meet up with them in Bridgeport.

When we all finally met up in the Bridgeport E.R., you would never had guessed that Isabella was sick. She was running around with her brother and sister, laughing, and playing. At around 3:30, they came by to give Isabella a small sedative so that she would sit still for the MRI. We even played a game to see who could sit still the longest. At around 4:15, they came by and said they were ready to take her up to the MRI. Isabella had calmed down just a bit from the sedative and Julianne said that she should carry her. "I'm not even tired," Isabella said, as she stumbled off the bed and wobbled toward the door, eyes half-way shut.

Julianne carried Isabella out of the room up to the MRI room, and all Annalise, Nathaniel, and I could do was wait.