Seizures are awful. If you have never witnessed somehow seizing you have NO IDEA how scary it is. Sure it sounds horrifying but to see one, is unimaginable. Now picture THIS, your sweet 15 month old baby, seizing uncontrollably (I'm sure all seizures are uncontrollable, I mean who would do that on purpose?). My baby boy had his first seizure at 15 months and would go on to have another seizure about every month, on the average, for the next year and a half. Anytime he got sick, had a cold, a fever, a cough, anything, we were on high alert. And without fail, he would have a seizure. The doctors kept calling them "febrile seizures" and I was on board (nothing scarier than having something wrong with your child and not know what or why), but Hubby was NOT SOLD. He was suspicious because the baby didn't always have a fever, he was always sick but not always a fever. AND majority of the time, it was where he was running around "normal" all day and then BOOM at night, seizure.
The good news about Febrile seizures is, the kid almost always grow out of them usually no more seizures after about 5 years old. So, how do you deal with a child who seizes almost anytime he gets sick? You watch him like a hawk and kiss your social life goodbye, become that kids shadow like never before. He is with me constantly and if he wasn't in the same room (taking a nap or playing with siblings), I had my handy dandy visual monitor that I carried at all times. He sleeps with me in my bed, we bought another bed for hubby and he sleeps uninterrupted in a completely different room (most people find this horrifying and unhealthy for a married couple but you gotta do what you gotta do and believe me, we find the time to hang out and cuddle and ...).
The first 3 seizures we called 911 and had him taken to the hospital via ambulance. There are several reasons why this sucks but more specifically? The ER team has to administer an IV into any seizure patient that comes in so they have a way to administer meds in case of another one. Trying to find that tiny, little vein in the arm of a small child who is typically dehydrated because they are sick and just had a seizure is like a blind woman trying to put thread though the eye of a needle. Not easy. Silly me, I forgot to add a moving needle. As most kids would be, Jacob did not fare well when his adversaries were the IV needle and the nurses holding him down. He fought like hell, every single time a nurse could be overheard saying "gosh he's strong". Now add the other tests, all the waiting, the moans, groans and screams from other ER patients. It's all very scary to a 15 month old baby, ipads, iphones and ipods all help with the distracting but it just.plain.sucks.
After the 2nd seizure, the pediatrician recommended an EEG. This is another one of those things like shots and IV's, kids generally hate, my little guy didn't disappoint, he took it to a whole new level. He screamed, fought (like a crazed lunatic), cried, kicked and collapsed during his EEG. But, it had to be done and we were able to find out that his brain activity was normal, WHEW. What a HUGE relief.
After the ER visit to the hospital, we always had a follow up appointment with his pediatrician. Almost every visite we heard, "he has some respitory issues, here's a nebulizer and some albuterol" (after his 2nd seizure we moved him to xopenex because albuterol has seizures as a side effect). Then it would be 3-4 days and he was better. As luck would have it, my little guy didn't remember his seizures. As a matter of fact, the only thing he ever remembered were the awful ER visits. He was getting so bad that it was making him anxious around any nurse, doctor or even any building that looked like a hospital. So, in direct response to my baby's stress and growing anxiety, his pediatrician and I decided that we would no longer go to the ER after his seizures, instead we would just come see him (unless his seizure was longer than 7 minutes).
On January 1, 2012 my baby had a seizure in the early morning. His pediatrician's office was closed (in support of the new year holiday) so I took him to "urgent care" and we went through the "same ole, same ole", make sure he's hydrated, give breathing treatment if necessary and give his pediatrician a call for an appointment the next day. My "pleasant surprise" on this day was the doctor told me his own story of suffering from febrile seizures himself when he was a child, and he grew up to be a doctor, so maybe my brain damage concerns weren't THAT valid. After the appointment, I took the baby home and left for the drugstore to pick up some meds for him. I wasn't 2 minutes from the house when my hubby called me, in a total and complete panic,
"Come home, I think he just had another seizure."
"Are you sure?"
"We'll not completely but he was shaking and I think it was a seizure". (Remember, outside of the first one, my hubby was not "hands on" during seizures, I was usually with the baby and hubby was taking care of the older kids and everything else)
"I need you to be sure, if he had more than one seizure in a 24 hour period, it's not febrile anymore, it's more serious."
"He had a seizure".
"I'll be there in a minute."
Two seizures, one day. This.changes.EVERYTHING!
