Seizure....

It was a crazy wintery week, not uncommon in this house. Full disclosure: I am NOT an organized mom (which is funny because I was a crazy organized single) so i'm constantly running around trying to find this or that. Most days, nights and weeks are crazy, frustrating, disasters for me but, alas, I manage. The kids decided that they wanted to stay the night at my moms house, they had cousins in town and "halmonis" (korean for grandma) house was much bigger than ours and I guess, more fun? Just a few weeks before Christmas and "colder than a witches tit" (not sure why we say this in our house but we do), we took the baby home and settled in for the night.

Hubbs and I were chilling (thats an understatement...did I mention it was winter in Iowa?). We were freezing our asses off, in the garage, watching TV and smoking our cigarettes. We were starting to get back on the marital track with spending quality time together without fighting, bickering or criticizing. I had the baby monitor on, like every night, and would check it occasionally to make sure the little bug was sleeping and doing ok (this is one of those fancy dancy video monitors where I can SEE the baby too. :) Hubby surprised me with it when we brought the baby home). He had a little bit of congestion and crabbiness (he seemed to always have colds) so I was being overly cautious.

Obviously, there is no bathroom in the garage and I was drinking water like I was dying on the desert (trying to keep my body hydrated because smoking is like putting sand into your bloodstream, not good). I went inside to pee and decided to check on the baby, as I was approaching his bedroom door, I felt "weird" like something was happening. The minute I walked into the room, I could "feel" his fever, hot and intense, his cheeks were burning bright red, his little head was wet with sweat. 

I walked over to him, as I was picking him up he started to seize, full grand mall seizure, like shaking uncontrollably, eyes rolled back into his head, entire body stiff as a board, teeth and fists tightly clenched, breathing quick, short puffs and saliva bubbles rapidly forming on sides of his mouth, his lips turning BLUE, kind of seizure. I yelled for Hubbs and he came running upstairs, he saw the fear in my eyes and saw the baby seizing. I only remember screaming, through tears and sobs "what is happening? help me, help me." In a panicked, terrified voice he said "Call 911" and took the baby from me. As I was on the phone, Hubbs was trying desperately to "save" the baby. Trying to talk to him, trying to hold him, trying anything to get the shaking to stop. But he kept shaking, he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't STOP, his lips were getting bluer, the saliva was fully oozing out of his mouth in streams of bubbles, dripping down his cheeks, neck, soaking the sheets below him.  Shaking, shaking, shaking, uncontrollably, not stopping, not slowing down. I start to quietly pray, under my breath, "God save him, help him, please don't die, please don't die, please breathe, please stop, God please make him stop, God PLEASE HELP HIM!". 

The 911 operator was calm and instructive. "Lay the baby down on his side, make sure he is somewhere safe where he can't fall or cut or scratch himself, don't try to hold him, don't try to administer CPR, he's breathing so don't worry, the seizure just needs to work its way through, just let me know as soon as he stops."  It felt like days, I was praying over and over in my head, begging, pleading for him to stop, tears streaming down my face, and just when I thought his poor little body couldn't take much more, after seven LONG, TERRIFYING minutes of violent shaking and tension, he stops seizing, his body goes limp, his lips and cheeks immediately red and he begins to whimper. I was still on the phone with the operator when the seizure stopped. As luck would have it the paramedics were seconds away, almost in my driveway. I thanked the operator and handed the phone to hubby, grabbed the baby and headed downstairs.

As soon as we got downstairs the paramedics were at the the front door, Hubbs let them in and we all went to the family room. They took the baby from me and he started to cry, a wailing cry, that was heartbreaking and loud. He cried  for what seemed like an eternity. It was difficult to have a conversation with the paramedics over his wails but they remained calm and assured me that this was perfectly normal. Then the paramedics started asking questions. "Does he have a fever?", "do I know how long the seizure was?", "Was this the first time?", "did any of my other kids have seizures?", "does he have any allergies?", "who is his pediatrician?", "what hospital do we want to go to?", "who wants to ride in the ambulance with the baby?", "does he have a favorite toy or blanket that he can take with him?", "are we ready to go?".

We decided that I would ride with the baby and Hubbs would follow and call all our family to let them know what happened. It was 10PM on a saturday night, it seemed like the ambulance ride took longer than usual, I was watching my baby, cry, struggle and fight the oxygen mask that they administered on the ride in, he was not a happy camper. My husband, mother, both parent in-laws and sister-in-law were on their way in to meet us at the hospital.

When a person has a seizure and goes to the emergency room the first thing they HAVE to do is administer an IV line, in case of another seizure, they have a safe method to administer medication. If anyone is curious as to whether or not 15 month old babies like a team of nurses hovering over them trying SEVERAL times to put an IV line (needle) into their tiny arm or hand or foot, I can assure you they do not like it. I would even go further and say they HATE it. My baby was miserable, they finally found a few nurses from pediatrics that thought they could get it done and they did, on the fourth try. My baby was tired, pricked and prodded, sick and thirsty, we kept asking for something to drink and kept getting the "as soon as the doctor comes in you can ask him". So, add insult to injury, "sorry son, I know its really scary and you're tired, thirsty and sore (from not only his fever but the insane seizure that accompanied it), but you cannot have anything to drink either. Aren't hospitals fun?"

They ran some tests and found no infections or additional concerns, possibly a "tiny bit of pneumonia in his left lung but, we will give him a REALLY powerful IV administered antibiotic now and a prescription for some follow up antibiotic too." It was JUST a febrile seizure, more common than you think, and he should be ok to go home but make sure I make a follow up appt. with his pediatrician". We went home early Sunday morning and took him to his doctor at 11:00am on Monday. The doctor explained the whole febrile seizure spiel; "sometimes the body reacts to an abrupt, intense fever with a seizure to help cool the body down. It's not necessarily the height (ambulance fever temp was 101, hospital fever temp was 102) of the fever that triggers it, it's the time or rate in which he goes from no fever to fever". Apparently, his body was like a really fast car, with a super charged engine, his body went from no fever to fever so fast, he was like a car going 0 to 60 in like 2 seconds. We would just have to keep an eye on him because if he gets a fever, he could have another seizure.  Some kids only have one, some have several, its really just a crap shoot. Take him home and get some rest, he should feel better in no time.

He never really came "out of it". This kid is your typical, high energy toddler, always running everywhere, intense, good eater and a riot to have around, so much fun. But, not this week. He was lethargic and cuddly, very little energy, didn't even want to walk and no desire to eat. I was concerned by his lack of interest and energy but figured this was just a result of the seizure, I mean that HAS to take some kind of toll on your body, I don't care how much the doctors say it doesn't and "I don't need to worry about it", I was worried. Two days after his doctor appt., it was a Wednesday, he was completely zonked, no energy what so ever. I made another appt, with the pediatrician and was told I could come in at 5:30pm.

By the time we got there he was even worse (if that's possible) after hearing "what's wrong" the nurse checked his oxygen levels, they were low, like in the 89's low, she immediately got the doctor and he checked him again, still very low...Exact words from the pediatrician; "Can you go to the hospital from here or should I call an ambulance? If you can't go straight to the hospital from here, I WILL call an ambulance. You cannot go home, you cannot stop anywhere. I will call them and let them know you're coming. Leave now...don't stop, are you sure you can go straight there? You CAN NOT stop. I will see you there later."

By 6:00 I was enroute to the hospital....