Six of a Kind

이십육: Lennox Gastaut

okay i know this chapter might seem a little odd and like, sudden, but it needs to be here for contextual reasons and itll make a lot more sense later down the line okay thank youuuu

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Over the next two months, between Jungkook's psychology assessments, Jimin's Lennox Gastaut seemed to take a turn for the worse.

Jimin's epilepsy was already very poorly maintained. He was pretty much drug resistant, and was suffering around 30 seizures a day. Although his convulsive seizures were controlled with a good sleeping routine and regular naps, Jimin was still stunted, and as they all got older, it became more noticeable.

Namjoon had done a little more research into Global Development Delay, and his hopes had been dashed. Jimin could still catch up a little bit with his brothers, but never fully. He was going to be profoundly disabled for the rest of his life. The doctors had hinted that he could catch up if he was lucky. Namjoon knew that was a small chance, but he had still clung onto it. He had hoped that Jimin's pain would fade. He had hoped that Jimin might have been able to lead a more normal life. He was wrong to hope when he could see just how bad Jimin was.

It reminded him again that he wasn't a good father. No matter what happened with the sextuplets, all he did was hope it would all go away. Once again, he had pushed Jimin's life away in the hopes he could just magically recover.

He definitely wasn't prepared for Jimin's seizures to get worse, though. He thought them bad enough as they were, and they only delayed him even more. Jimin had his bad days, but then the bad days suddenly doubled, and then they were nearly every day.

*

It started the day after Jungkook's first appointment. As Namjoon cuddled him in bed, he had a tonic seizure. He recovered quickly, but then went into another. And then another. And then another. Namjoon had kept counting until Jimin had reached 10 of the same seizure, and then finally calmed.

That had happened a few times on a bad day, and although Namjoon was worried, he wasn't alarmed. He babied him as he got him ready for school, and warned Jonghyun that it may be a rough day for him.

Namjoon got a call just an hour later from the school, asking him to pick Jimin up. He was having so many seizures it was disrupting the whole class, and Jimin was too exhausted to be there. Namjoon got him home, and tucked him up on the sofa, stroking his hair as he settled back into doing his work.

Jimin didn't have seizures in his sleep, but it was like his brain kept waking him up just for him to have them. He kept whimpering, which was Namjoon's only warning that an episode was coming. Namjoon eventually had to ring his boss and explain what was happening. He was thankfully very sympathetic, and told Namjoon he could catch up whenever he had the time.

Jimin's episodes kept coming between fits of sleep. He could stay down for about half an hour, then he would rouse, and have multiple seizures all in a row, before dropping back off.

Namjoon had to pick up the rest of the sextuplets at 1pm. By that time, Jimin had suffered nearly 50 seizures, and was still going. The boy was completely scrambled, and couldn't keep himself awake after an episode. Namjoon really was starting to worry.

"Daddy, Jimin seepy!" Hoseok told him as he was strapped into the car.

Namjoon shushed him. "He's had a really bad day, boys. He's very poorly today. He needs lots of quiet and rest."

Taehyung made a little "hmph," noise. He was getting a little bored of having to be quiet because of Jimin. As much as he loved his brother, he just wanted to be a toddler and run around and play. Jimin always took that away from him.