We spent two nights in the hospital. It was a very difficult time for us with much heartarche and fear for our little girl. After seeing the seizures getting more frequent and more pronounced we called the Neurology Dept. at Children’s Hospital at 4 am. They suggested coming in the morning to the ER. There we waited and then different medical personnel kept asking us the same questions over and over. She finally had a seizure before them and a number of different doctors — the ER attending physician, the resident, the attending neurologist, etc. etc. — admitted her. Dr. Darras, the neurologist on-call, had her start a large dose of Phenobarbital through an IV. This is called “loading”.
Because they needed to observe her response to the medicine and dosage, she was admitted and they moved us to the neurology ward where Ella had a little raised crib. I stayed with her to nurse and one of us, either Etan or myself, were with her constantly. Thankfully, she responded well to the medicine and her last seizure was at 8 pm that night.