In February of 2005 Jenna contracted rota virus, which isn't usually a serious condition. It's pretty common among kids. By the age of five, nearly every child in the world has been infected with rota virus at least once. Jenna's case was relatively normal, she had all the textbook symptoms; diarrhea, vomiting, fever. By the 3rd day, when she was showing no improvement we took her to a minor medical facility and they pretty much told us just to keep her hydrated. The Rota virus was spreading pretty fast and pretty serious in our area, so they weren't real concerned that my toddler daughter wasn't eating, drinking and was steadily losing fluids. So the next morning we took her to LeBonher children's hospital. They admitted her, for what we thought would be over night, to get a bag of fluids. We were wrong. She was in LeBonher for an entire month. The rota virus she had initially presented with had spread to her brain. She was then diagnosed with Encephalitis which is an acute inflammation of the brain, commonly caused by a viral infection. Basically a stroke, without injury to the brain.
One entire month, my precious daughter is not eating solids, not walking, not even talking. Not just not talking, not acknowledging. Everyone speculated that she was in shock and I believe she was. The trauma that she endured at the age of 2 and will likely have no memory of, is more than some adults experience their entire lives.
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