Chris Zollinger

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Well this journey started on November 3rd when Chris, Jacob and I were hanging out in the living room talking about what time to go and see a movie.  All of a sudden - Chris who was sitting on my left hand side on the couch sat up from the back and pointed at his face.  NO voice or noise - just a point.  I noticed right away something was wrong.  By that time, Chris fell back against the couch and his left hand side of his face was twitching erratically, his eyes rolled up and  to the left and his hands were in a strange deformed position.  His breathing was fine - but there was no acknowledgement of my voice.  I immediately asked Jacob to call 911.  He did.  While he was taking care of that, I moved to sit directly in front of Chris and started talking him thru his first ever seizure.  It lasted a full three minutes.  

When Chris came out of it, he was dazed and confused.  He didn't do much, but his hands dropped to his side.   As soon as it subsided, I left Jacob with Chris  and ran to have Nick put the dogs out as I knew the ambulance was on it's way.  This came as a shock to Nick as he had no idea any of this was going on.  Within two minutes of the the first one, a second seizure hit.  This time his hands remained at his side but the facial tick was as strong as the first one and his eyes again moved up and to the left.  He never lost consciousness in either case.  This seizure lasted a good two minutes.  Jacob was still on the phone with 911 and this time the operator at 911 wanted me to verbally mark every time Chris took a breath.

By the time the second seizure was ending the paramedics showed up.  I sat there making sure he was okay and then moved out of the way so they could do their work and I answered all the questions they had to fill out their reports.  As this was going on, I happen to look over and saw that a third seizure was starting.  I again immediately went to Chris and talked him through it.  It lasted about 1 and 1/2 minutes.  Thank goodness they were getting shorter.  And thank goodness the paramedics where there to witness it and see what was happening.  

The next little bit was a blur of activity with them loading Chris onto the gurney, me checking on Nick, updating my mom very quickly and giving instructions to Jacob to pick up Zac from his soccer game and then Chris was being wheeled out and loaded onto the ambulance.  I got in and they were off.  The one statement that stood out was when the EMT in the back said to the driver - step on it, we don't have time.  WOW!  Now I was really scared.   During the ride I called a couple of family members to let them know.  I did hear the back EMT also say he was having another seizure.  UGH!  I was stuck up front.  He has a couple minor ones as well.

We ended up at  Kaiser Permanente Fremont - that's their stroke center.  He was rushed in and I was signing papers to get him seen.  When I was done signing - I stood in the doorway watching and listening while the doctors and nurses did what they needed to.  What I didn't know until a nurse came over to tell me is that a neurologist was on the computer and was watching Chris and examining him.  It was amazing to watch.  All this and then all of a sudden he had his fifth seizure while he was watching.  What a blessing that was. 

After a period of time, they took him for a CAT scan of his brain.  It seemed like hours before we had results back.    His labs came back normal so that was good.  But he did show a legion in his right frontal lobe with swelling around it.  UGH!!  The nurse wanted the doctor to tell us about it.  They then ordered a CAT scan of his chest, abdomen and pelvic areas.  


Nov 3rd 2018 – Jill update - Thank you all.  They just did a swallow test and he passed with flying colors.

Nov 3rd 2018 – Jill Update – All lab work came back okay

Nov 3rd 2018 – Jill Update – Cat scan is abnormal on the right frontal lobe, but nurse wants doctor to tell us.

Nov 3rd 2018 – Jacob update – CAT scan came back and there is a spot on his right frontal lobe.  He will get an MRI tomorrow sometime that will tell us more and will have some other tests.  He’s being admitted to stay overnight now and is still stable.  We will let you know more tomorrow

Nov 3rd 2018 at 11:10pm – Jill Update – So Chris has a headache now.  They gave him some Tylenol.  The neurologist has ordered a couple more Cat scans of the chest, abdominal and pelvis.  Turns out the legion on his right brain also has some swelling.  The MRI is tomorrow.  They are admitting him to ICU for better monitoring