Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
A couple days ago we had quite the scare from this little one as she began passing out at camp and had to make an emergency exit from the wilderness to meet up with paramedics for an ambulance ride to the nearest hospital.
As of today Abby is back to herself and seems 100% both in personality and vital readings.
We did a follow up with Abigail's pediatrician yesterday and have expanded testing with blood work and an EKG as an immediate precaution with more tests to come.
Most likely, this is just another vasovagal reaction similar to what happened last August which also ended in a ER visit and additional rounds of testing which came back all clear at the time.
While she has a clean bill of health, we'll continue to expand the search to help ensure nothing is being missed. Both myself and Caroline have had these spells in the past, so it seems likely she comes by them genetically; but we want to do our due diligence to make sure it's simply an involuntary response to new sensations like nausea or stomach cramps.
Since she's so small, it's not something we can communicate with her about so we're continuing to paste the clues together through these events.
I can't express the need for an emergency plan any stronger than sharing our firsthand experience. It really goes beyond just having a device.
As soon as I saw she was in distress I disconnected the trailer, passed the dog off to our friends Ant and Emma of We Will Roam, and headed for the nearest emergency room which was about 1.5 hours away under normal driving conditions.
The first time she lost consciousness I hit the SOS and began working out the fastest exit strategy to where an ambulance could access us. If she stopped breathing we would have begun CPR and requested helicopter support.
Needless to say our med kit is extensive and our addition of oxygen cans helped quite a bit to keep Abby conscious as we made our way off the mountain. I never expected to shake down the Griz this hard and under duress, but we were all amazed at how it performed at speed over some nasty trail.
The Garmin InReach SOS performed flawlessly and her brave sister Caroline, texted with the response personal on the Garmin Earthmate app to relay my plan and Abby's current condition.
Sarah kept speaking to Abby with reassuring words and giving her oxygen when she started slipping. She even gave us a few grins at times as she came in and out of consciousness though there was plenty of crying too. We almost had her back to "normal" for a few minutes but she vomited and restarted her vasovagal fainting process all over again.
Our exit plan worked perfectly and after hitting pavement we rounded a corner to oncoming flashing lights where we were met by police and paramedics.
Sarah jumped into the ambulance and we followed them the rest of the way to the ER where the helicopter was spooled up just in case.
Literally 10 minutes after getting into her room, she was nearly back to normal with perfect vitals and sharing friendly grins with the staff... All of this on her own with no medical intervention.
Like I said above, even though this seems to be text book vasovagal responses we're going to expand our search to verify her medical condition even further than the last round of testing, just to be sure.
We appreciate all the suggestions both here and on other social media platforms. Thankfully we have an incredible pediatrician who isn't just a great doctor but also a fan of what we do and has a road map for these validations. (He was also a big help in building our kit and skill set after the first incident happened last year.)
As for now we're just trying to process the traumatic impacts of a situation like this which is its own mental challenge. Even though we were well prepared, nothing truly prepares you for seeing your child in distress.
Please take this event as a reminder to be prepared with proper gear, effective communication, medical training, escape routes, and most importantly; a cool head to keep everyone under control and reassured while executing a response.
While it was one of the scariest moments of our lives, I was beyond proud of our family and especially Caroline for operating cooly under extreme stress while communicating with emergency services.
Again, thank you all for being there for us. We appreciate you and love you all!
Stay Curious and Stay Prepared,
Kevin, Sarah, Caroline, Abigail, and Ace
P.S. Here's a video covering more on this topic of being prepared: lso.link/prepare
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