FRISCO, Texas — The FCS national championship game is just days away, and while most Montana State football fans will be cheering for the Bobcats at Toyota Stadium or from the comfort of their living rooms, one young boy from Winifred and his family will be watching their favorite team from a hospital bed.
Trevick Udelhoven is an energetic 4-year-old boy who loves farming, dressing like a cowboy and being outdoors.
“Trevick is a huge cowboy,” said his mom, Lexi. “He doesn't leave the house without his cowboy boots on or his spurs.”
And Trevick along with his parents Lexi and Dillon and four siblings Traylan, Trexton, Timmer and Tamrynn all bleed blue and gold.
“So (Lexi and I) both went to MSU and that’s where we met,” Dillon said. “We’re obviously very big Bobcat fans.”
But game day has looked a little different over the past two months.
The Udelhoven family has spent the past 58 days at Seattle Children’s Hospital, as Trevick battles a rare and life-threatening seizure disorder. Their nightmare started in November after Trevick had battled a cold over Halloween.
“He seemed really tired and went to sleep and so Dillon and I both decided we'd better go check on him. It was like 7 a.m., we went into his bedroom,” Lexi said. “He was kind of rustling around. So I picked him up and he just started seizing. So I set him on the floor and the only thing we knew was to put him on his side. So that's what we did.”
He was stabilized at the emergency room in Lewistown and flown by Mercy Flight to Benefis in Great Falls. Trevick continued to seize and doctors couldn't determine why, so he was flown to Seattle and intubated.
A neurologist at the pediatric intensive care unit there diagnosed Trevick with Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome (FIRES), an incredibly rare and devastating neurological condition that typically affects previously healthy children and young adults.
It begins suddenly, often following a mild fever or infection, and leads to prolonged seizures that are resistant to standard treatments.
“I mean, a lot of those first days are, unfortunately, a blur,” Lexi said. “I wish I would remember more, I wish I would have wrote everything down or something, but it was just way too overwhelming to even process”
Months later, Trevick is still having seizures, but they are much more controlled and the doctors in Seattle are refining a medication regimen that will work best for him.
The Udelhovens have had to split time at the hospital. Right now Lexi is home with their other four children, while Dillon is in Seattle with Trevick. Dillon is the head coach of the Roy-Winifred boys basketball team but had to step away from the team to help care for his son.
After suffering minor brain damage from the seizures, Trevick has daily physical, occupational and speech therapy sessions and is making progress. But there’s still no firm timetable on when he’ll be able to come home or what his recovery will look like.
“I think they're confident that he’ll be able to talk and walk again. It's just the timeline of how that works is an unknown,” Dillon said. “I think they can confidently say that this isn't where his recovery is stopping, and he has a lot of recovery that he can make in the next weeks to months to years.”
But they are making sure to celebrate each milestone. Trevick is smiling more often and following simple commands like clapping and sitting up.
“It's just a huge sigh of relief. Obviously he has a long ways to go,” Lexi said. “But the uncertainty of this diagnosis and how much brain function can be lost from it, it's just very relieving to see him hit some of these milestones for sure.”
Managing life at home and in Seattle wouldn’t be possible for the Udelhoven family without support from folks back home. There have been fundraisers, prayer chains and much more.
“It is just a very, very humbling thing. It's hard to see so many people donate their hard-earned money to you, but it's a very extreme act of kindness,” Dillon said. “And you can't describe how appreciative and thankful you are for all the people who support our family and Trevick.”
And each Bobcat game day has offered a respite for the Udelhovens.
They can push aside the worries of the day, not think about treatment and enjoy football as a family. And that’s exactly what they’ll be doing Monday when the Montana State football team takes the field for the FCS title game.
No, a championship won’t heal Trevick. But it will sure make him and his family smile.
“Sports aren't everything, but they can they can also add a lot of positivity to people's lives. Montana is one big community,” Dillon said. “And for Montana State to be in the situation they're in right now, you know, it's pretty uplifting for a lot of residents in Montana.”
The Udelhoven family included.
