May• 2019 | 115to speed. She also forced herself to
stop crying, because the tears were
blurring her vision.
At the hospital where Conner
had been rushed in an ambulance,
doctors ruled out an infection such
as meningitis. Then they sent him
home. “It could happen again, or it
might not happen again,” one of them
told Hollie. If it did, she shouldn’t
worry. High temperatures can trigger
an episode in a developing brain.
The doctor instructed Hollie to give
Conner pain-relievers if he experi-
enced one of these so-called febrile
seizures, also known as a fever fit.
Jeff was ‘scared to death’ when
Hollie called to tell him what hadhappened. Hollie, though, was com-
forted by what the doctors had said.
When Conner had more seizures –
after his evening bath, while playing in
his room – she imagined that she and
Jeff would one day remember these
episodes as part of a passing phase.A MEDICAL MYSTERY
Two months after his first seizure,
Conner had an electroencephalo-
gram, which measures brain activity
through electrodes attached to the
scalp. The results were abnormal:
he endured multiple seizures during
the procedure, some so small that
his body never visibly moved. Con-
ner was prescribed an anti-seizureL-R) Jeff and Hollie Beish on their
wedding day in 2006; Jaxon, six,
and Conner, three, in April 2016ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BEISH FAMILY