Intense panic and anxiety following DD health problems

[kirinm]

This is all incredibly recent so I think some anxiety is probably totally normal but my 7yo DD had some sort of episode in a swimming pool two weeks ago today - around now in fact - and was found in the water not breathing. Following two rounds of CPR she started breathing. I was blue lighted to hospital by the police who called me basically saying they didn’t know if she was alive or not, and then we spent time in resus which is chaotic by nature I guess.

DD came out of hospital about 8 days later. They don’t know what the episode was and despite the fact she had something similar two weeks and 2 months prior, they refuse to accept epilepsy as a diagnosis (I’m epileptic and it really feels like epilepsy to me).

I’m basically living in fear of receiving a call from school (or worse) saying something has happened. I’m waking up not knowing where I am - whether I’m in a hospital or home - every phone call makes me feel sick. If she’s quiet for a while, it makes my heart race and we are now sleeping with her and having a monitor to keep an eye on her.

Without knowing what the triggers are, we are paranoid about pretty much everything so are monitoring her sleep, her temperature, her coughs, what she’s eating etc. I’m struggling to focus on work and basically cry multiple times a day.

Is this normal? Should I be looking for help? We have been allocated a psychologist by the major trauma centre so I’ll speak to him when he calls but I’m just not sure how I can properly function like this.

Bloody hell, OP, that sounds really traumatic. It's absolutely normal and expected that you'd be struggling afterwards. When is the psychologist due to call?

Also, you might find this useful:

https://assisttraumacare.org.uk/nice-guidelines-ptsd/

Xx

I was prescribed propranolol after a health related trauma and intense feelings of anxiety and panic. It really helped almost immediately. I still have the feelings in my head, but feel better able to manage them and distract myself without the physical feelings.
I’m so sorry though, I can’t imagine how awful that must have been (and still is!). I hope you get some answers

What are they (your GP/the hospital?) doing about confirming a diagnosis for your daughter? Until there's some sort of resolution or plan of action it's completely natural that you are going to be on high alert.

I’m not sure. It was definitely meant to be this week. He also said he’d help advocate for us if we needed it so I need to find his number.

They are effectively waiting and seeing what happens - and seem happy enough with that so long as she doesn’t swim. That isn’t okay with me though so I’m writing to the paediatrician. I was promised I could speak to one of the neurologists before we were discharged so I could understand what they’re thinking but it didn’t happen. We also have more info about what happened at the pool so I want to make sure the neurologist reads that as it lends more weight to it being a seizure (to me).