HURRICATION

PHASE I: the first 48 hours

Evacuation: 11:55 pm Wednesday September 10th
Destination: Buda, TX (Grandma & Grandpa's)
Arrival: 3:15 am Thursday September 11th

During phase 1 of Hurrication Ike we were feeling proud of ourselves for boarding up and heading out early...just in case. Hanging around for power outages, flooded roads, and downed trees was not on our list of easy things to handle with Neavey in tow. And, if Ike were to be as devastating as Alicia in 1983...and Neavey got sick or had an emergency we might be unable to get her the help she needed...

Anyway, we were also happy that this time we cut about 13 hours off our drive time. When we evacuated for Hurricane Rita we got caught in the mass exodus that turned a 3 hour drive into a 16+ hour drive.

Thursday and Friday at CAMP McCORD were uneventful. Lots of Weather Channel viewing as Hurricane Ike approached Galveston and Houston. We watched alot of September 11th remembrance specials and ceremonies as well.

Every year in honor of 9-11, Neavey and I wear our matching t-shirts. (Oh, I got my hair cut. Donated 11 inches to Locks of Love.) Neavey was in good spirits playing in the big lounge chairs with her toys.

PHASE II: Saturday 9-13 thru Tuesday afternoon 9-16
Status: Neavey gets SICK!

Sometime in the wee hours of Saturday the 13th Neavey started having sinus drainage that subsequently caused lots of upper airway congestion. She was uncomfortable and restless through the early morning. Sometime in the late morning I watched her lips and gums become pale and go white. Panicked, we called my mom in and she went into Nurse mode immediately. My mother whipped out a full on suction machine and sterile catheter kit that she had on hand in case such an emergency ever arose!?!?! 1o minutes and 25 ml's of thick yellow gooey mucus later, my mom had Neavey pink and breathing normally again. I say, another pat on the back for evacuating to my parent's house. This was the worst case scenario I had envisioned had we stayed in Houston...An EMT might not have reached us in time nor could we have reached the hospital.

PHASE III: Tuesday night- Friday 9-19
Status: illness subsides and the screaming begins

Neavey seemed to be soothed somewhat when Keith played guitar for her.

3 days of screaming began on Tuesday evening. Having lived through events like this before we were fairly confident that Neavey was experiencing side effects (anxiety) from her Keppra. We ran her to an emergency care clinic in Austin to make sure she had no secondary infections from the sinus infection. As we guessed, everything from ears, nose and throat looked pretty good to the doc. Neavey's neurologist in Houston had us give her extra klonopin to settle her down during these episodes. It helped some. But mostly she screamed and cried off and on for 3 days followed by 2 days of small crying jags. In the end I found that the different oral syringes being used to deliver the med were not exactly the same. So the inconsistencies in her dosing seem to have been the problem. We are currently being extremely careful and deliberate in measuring her dose with the same syringe.