She's Coming Home

Trips, friends and seizures

Antonio POV
Now that Gabby's allowed to leave the hospital more often I have a plan to take her somewhere today. Voight's letting me leave a bit early so I can go get Gabby. I've also borrowed Hermann's van so I can get her wheelchair in the back. I head over to med to pick her up. She's in bed and looks like she just woke up
Antonio- hi, you sleep all day!?
I tease her
Gabby- no PT. I needed a nap after
Antonio- ok, you up for a trip now?
Gabby- yes. Am I allowed
Antonio- ya, April's coming with us. Are you ok with me lifting you like Severide was?
Gabby- yes
I pick her up and put her in her chair. It has all the machines on the back already, probably from her going to therapy. I move her eye gaze over.
Antonio- ready to go?
Gabby- yes
Antonio- do you need your tray?
Gabby- no I'm fine
Antonio- ok, let's go find April.
We find her and head out to Hermann's van.
Gabby- I don't think I can sit.
April- I think you'll be ok, we can tip the seat back and lock the seatbelt.
I get her in the car. She's leaning to one side but she should be fine, it's not a long drive. April and I lift the wheelchair into the back, that thing is crazy heavy, and we head out.

Gabby POV
Antonio pulls up at a daycare. This must be Shay's daycare. He puts me back in my chair which feels amazing because my body is supported again and I'm not fighting to stay upright. He goes to sit me up
Gabby- no. I want to stay tilted for now I'm tired
Antonio- ok, sorry I now the car wasn't ideal.
Gabby- it's ok just already tired from PT.
We're still just by the van but I notice other parents staring at me while they head in to get their kids.
Gabby- Tonio people are staring
Antonio- ignore them, we're here for Shay.
Gabby- they're parents
Antonio- so are you, now can we head in?
Gabby- ok
April- I'm going to stay here, my phone is on, call if you need anything, I'll be right there.
Wow I get to go out 2 days in a row and I'm not being followed around! Antonio brings me inside. We go back to a room where there are a bunch of kids and some other parents there to get their kids. One of the staff sees us and comes over.
Antonio- that's ms H, she works with Shay a lot.
Ms H- hi
Gabby- hi
Ms H- you must be Gabby
Gabby- yes nice to meet you
Ms H- you too, I'll go get Shay
Gabby- can I come find her
Ms H- of course, follow me
Antonio brings me over to where Shay's play. He goes and gets her attention to say hi. Meanwhile I start getting swarmed by kids who have noticed me and want to touch everything. I'm fine with this, they're toddlers, they're curious. What bothers me is when some of parents come and start pulling they're kids away and telling them to stop without acknowledging that I'm even here. Shay has finally spotted me
Shay(signs and speaks)- mama!
She runs over and starts climbing on me. She's taught herself how to climb onto my lap by herself. My arms are in my lap, in her way so she just moves them. First she hugs me then she turns around to sit on me. She moves my arms again to put them around her. I think it's adorable that she's starting helping me hug her but I also hate that I can't just do it. A woman walks over to us
Woman- hi, are you Shay's mom?
Gabby- hi yes Gabby
Woman- hi, I'm Emily. My daughter Kara talks about Shay all the time.
She points to a little girl playing at the corner of the carpet.
Gabby- I'm glad she has friends. I worry about her with other kids
Emily- Kara loves her, she comes home every day and tells me all the signs Shay taught her.
I smile
Gabby- careful learning from Shay, she tends to invent her own signs. Especially when she's teaching.
She laughs
Emily- I've been learning a bit online, I know 2 year olds aren't the most reliable source!
Kara comes over to us
Kara- hi mama! Look blocks
Emily- I see the blocks, that's such a nice tower. Kara this is Shay's mom Gabby
Kara- hi
Gabby- hi
Kara- what that?
Gabby- I use this computer to help me talk
Kara- why?
Emily- sorry
Gabby- it's fine she's curious. My brain got hurt, that's what controls everything in your body. So it's hard for me to move and talk so I have the computer to help.
Kara- ok. What's that?
She touches my wheelchair
Gabby- that's my wheelchair. Because it's really hard for me to move my body I can't sit by myself or walk yet so this helps me sit up and move around.
She climbs on the side of my chair and goes to touch my trach
Kara- what that?
Shay pulls her hand away.
Shay(signs)- don't touch! Help mama breathe.
Kara signs sorry.
Kara- Shay say don't
Gabby- yes she said don't touch because it helps me breathe and she's right. That's called a trach and it helps me breathe but you can't touch
Kara- sorry
Gabby- it's ok, you didn't know.
Shay pulls up my shirt and points at my tube.
Shay(signs)- don't touch, hurt mama
Gabby- Tonio
He'd been talking to Ms H
Antonio- what's up
Gabby- Shay shirt
He comes over and fixes my shirt.
Antonio(signs)- Shay leave mama's shirt. She doesn't like everyone seeing her tummy.
Shay(signs)- sorry mama
I just look at her and smile. She knows I'm not mad.
Gabby- sorry about that
Emily- I understand, I have my own 2 year old over-sharing with the world!

Antonio POV
It's great that Gabby's making friends with another mom, I've just been talking to Ms H about how Shay's doing to give them some space.
Kara- what that?
She points at Gabby's wrist brace but she doesn't respond. I look closer at Gabby and she's zoned out then I see her whole body tense. I grab Shay off her lap and pull out my phone. Emily notices what I'm doing and gets Kara off the side of her chair
Emily- let's give Gabby some space.
I call April
T- "seizure, we're in the back room"
A- "coming, tilt her back"
Call ended

I tilt her chair back just as she starts jerking.
Antonio(signs and speaks)- Shay can you go play with Kara.
Shay(signs)- mama
Emily- come on girls
She leads them both away
Antonio- thank you
Ms H- what do you need?
Antonio- is there somewhere more private?
All the other parents are staring and I know she would hate this
Ms H- the staff break room, right there
She points to a door nearby just as April runs in.
Antonio- break room
I start bringing Gabby over there and April nods and follows.
As soon as we're in there April grabs everything off the back of her chair and puts it on a table. She's takes the purple thing off her trach and puts her on the vent. Then she turns the suction machine on and starts suctioning her mouth
April- do you know how to disconnect her feed? Just turn off the pump, clamp the extension and pull the white part out of the extension
I do what she said
Antonio- what else can I do
The alarm on her monitor is still going off.
April- in the backpack, there's an ambu-bag. Grab it
I pull it out
April- now attached the oxygen tubing to that thing on the end and open the oxygen tank all the way, turn it up as high as it will go
I do everything she says
April- there should be gloves in there too, put them on then disconnect the vent and bag her. You know how to do that?
Antonio- yep... she taught me
I start bagging her
Antonio- now what?
April- now we wait for it to stop or until it's been 5 minutes.
Antonio- and after 5 minutes
April- call an ambo to transport her back to med.
Luckily it stopped after 4 minutes and she stabilized.
April- ok, you can put her back on the vent and go get Shay. We need to go.
I switch her back and go back into the main room
Ms H- everything ok?
Antonio- ya, just a seizure, it stopped but we need to go, where's...
Ms H- I got all Shay's stuff packed up, I'll go get her.
Shay comes over holding Kara's hand, Emily's following them.
Antonio- thanks, I'm just going to go check
Emily- I've got Shay
I got back to the break room
April- almost ready, can you put the suction back on her chair?
We get everything packed up again and head out to the main room.
Shay(signs)- mama sleep
Antonio(signs)- yes, she's ok
Shay(signs)- seizure tired need sleep help breathe.
I go pick her up and give her a big hug
Antonio(signs)- you are so smart and so brave
Shay(signs)- mama's mini
She tries to sign PIC but she can't really do finger spelling yet so it's just sign babble
Antonio(signs)- yes mini PIC
Antonio- thank you both
Ms H- no problem, I'll see you tomorrow
Emily- we'll walk out with you
We all head out to the parking lot. I put Shay in her car seat and start buckling her in.
April- I'll do that, I need you to lift Gabby.
Emily- I can handle a car seat
Antonio- thanks
I go lift Gabby into the car while April makes sure the vent doesn't get pulled on. Then April makes sure she's in a decent position and suctions her again before we lift the chair into the back.
Antonio- thanks for all your help, sorry to rush off
Emily- of course, I'm sure I'll see you another time.
We head back to med, April tells me to pull up at the ED and calls Maggie to get her to meet us. When we get there Maggie's waiting with a gurney so I lift her onto there and they bring her straight inside. Maggie comes back out.
Maggie- she's with April and Nat, they're just checking her out and getting her SATs up.
Antonio- ok
Maggie- why don't you come back later when she's had some time to rest
Antonio- sure, I should probably get Hermann his van back.