A Night I Hope to NEVER Repeat

Well, let me start by saying I am so, so behind on blogging!  I have pictures from Katelynn's preschool graduation among several other things that I hope to get posted this week.  I have been "nesting" and getting ready for baby and abandoning my regular blogging on here lately.  However, last night was eventful at our house and rather than continue to be on the phone all day updating family and friends, I thought leaving the full story on our blog was much easier.  Bare with me as you know I'm all long-winded and tell every single detail :)

So, yesterday I hit 38 weeks pregnant and my goal has been to have this baby asap (not that that has anything to do with what occurred but you get where my mindset has suddenly flipped dramatically once you read on)!  We started our day like any other, but after naps Justin woke up a little warm.  I questioned whether he had a fever.  He had just woken though and was under blankets in his bed so I wasn't sure if it was just from sleeping.  He insisted he felt fine and wanted to play outside so I let it go and we headed outdoors.  It didn't take long for the heat to get to him outside and he looked sick.  We had just moved the carseats around in the van and both kids were wanting to ride in their new "spot" in the van.  Jonathan and I both tried to convince Justin it was a better idea to just go inside the house as he didn't look great, but he insisted he was fine so we cranked the air conditioner and I took them on a little ride.  It wasn't very far into it when Justin vomited.  I knew right then that my instincts were in fact correct, and I should have just given him Tylenol and put him in the house before.  We came right home.  Honestly, I didn't take his temperature.  He was not burning up so much that I was concerned his fever was anything that needed medical attention so I just gave him the Tylenol.  He wanted to be held for a bit, but then he started feeling better as the fever went down and played some.  He had chicken noodle soup and crackers for dinner and held them down fine and went to bed. 

Probably 30-ish minutes after he had went to bed, I went in to check on him and he was awake again.  He told me his belly hurt so we went to the bathroom to make sure he didn't have to vomit again.  I then laid him back down in his bed and he told me he was cold.  We shut off his ceiling fan and bundled tighter in the blankets.  I noticed he felt like he was getting warm again, and it had probably been about 4 hours since his last dosage of Tylenol.  I figured since he was about to sleep for hopefully an extended period of time, I should just give him some more Tylenol to help him sleep more comfortably.  After I gave him the medicine, I sat down next to his bed to read my book and be there for him while he fell asleep.  He was pretty tired.  It wasn't but within a few minutes and for some reason I looked over at him.  I have no recollection as to if I felt something was wrong or if I was just looking to see if he was asleep now that I look back on it, but when I looked over at him, his body was shaking (not violently, more like an excessive shivering from chills) and his eyes were up and at the top of his head (I could see his pupils but they were all the way at the top).  I grabbed him immediately out of bed and noticed that he was making a weird gurgling-type noise that instantly made me think he was possibly just starting to vomit and had started choking on it since he was laying on his back.  I flipped him over my arm and started pounding his back and calling his name, asking if he was okay.  He never once stopped shaking and his eyes remained open and rolled up, with no response as to answering me while I spoke.  I ran downstairs, searching for Jonathan and my cell phone.  Katelynn had still been awake in her room and at the commotion of all of it, she ran down too right by my side.  I knew Jonathan was going to run to Lowe's Home Improvements (he was working on the garage and boat), but I had no idea if he was still gone or home outside working.  Katelynn and I tried yelling for him, all the while Justin was still in the same state as he had been.  I fumbled with my phone, trying to dial 9-1-1 (It's amazing how when you need to dial it, in such panic, you can't seem to punch the right numbers!).  At some point during my short conversation with the operator, Justin stopped shaking and just seemed to be "fading" on me.  He remained breathing the entire time, but I was in a sure panic he was going to stop breathing.  I kept talking to him, telling him to stay awake, stay with me.  He would open up his eyelids but his eyes remained at the top of his head and he was moaning.  At this point, Katelynn and I were outside with Justin.  I had discovered by then that Jonathan was gone and had quickly dialed him after the 9-1-1 operator to tell him to get home.  I have no idea what I even said to him in my state of panic, but it wasn't a long conversation.  Since we were already outside, I stayed out there.  My thought process was that I wanted to hand Justin over to medical help as quickly as I could and what was quicker than being at the end of my yard and right there when they pulled up.  It's kind of silly now that I look back on it, but it made sense then.  Justin really started falling into a deep sleep that I couldn't get him to wake from as the firetruck pulled up.  I started telling him that he was going to miss seeing the firetruck and he loves firetrucks, and he did respond at that point and open his eyes and actually move his pupils around, but when I asked him to look at me, he still wouldn't focus and look at me.  He closed his eyes again pretty quickly.

With fire rescue here, we went into the house so Justin could be laid down and accessed.  His color and vitals were all good.  He wouldn't open his eyes when I talked to him, but he did cry some.  When paramedics arrived, they evaluated him a little and said that he probably had a reaction to fever and told us it was actually pretty common.  They said they could transport him to the hospital for testing if we preferred, but that they would probably just refer us to the pediatrician in the morning even if we did so.  They stayed with us (Jonathan arrived shortly after medical help did and was filled in on the event)  for a bit and Justin finally woke up, talked to us, looked at us, and appeared pretty normal.  He was still slightly warm so he did complain of being cold, but he was acting much more like himself by that point.  The paramedics were pretty convinced there wasn't a need to seek hospitalization so we took their advice.  Jonathan ran to the store and got Pedialyte and we hydrated him with Pedialyte and let him fall back asleep on the couch.  We stayed awake until well after 2 a.m. watching him for any signs of activity again.  By 2 am, he was just starting to get warm again so we gave him one more dose of Tylenol and decided to put him in bed with us and try to get some rest.  Justin woke up this morning acting completely like himself, with no recollection of seeing the fire trucks, only the ambulance lights when they were packing up to leave.    Still, even though he seemed fine (not even a fever), we visited the pediatrican this morning.

Basically what we learned from the pediatrician is that Justin experienced a febrile seizure last night.  Our ped told us that 1 in 20 children actually have these before the age of 6 and that it can happen to Justin again until he gets passed the age of 6, whether it be this week or a month or year from now.  It may also never happen again; there's just no way to know.  I have yet to google febrile seizures, but from what our ped explained, it happens when there is a dramatic change in body temperature in a short period of time.  He said as long as they only lasted a minute or so and that Justin returned to a normal state within 30-ish minutes (which he did), that there probably was no concern.  If he does have another one, they will do an EEG just to confirm that there is not any neurological defects.  Sadly, there's nothing I can do to prevent this from happening to him and trust me, it's not something I want to see again but all I can do is pray that it isn't something we have to go through ever again.  The ped suggested if the seizure does occur again and it starts lasting closer to five minutes, we should go ahead and call 9-1-1 again, but otherwise we don't have to call for immediate help unless we feel like we need/want to.  His only suggestion was to make sure Justin is safe while the seizure is occuring and is laying on his side in case of vomiting. 

So.. wow.  I am just so overwhelmed and still a bit scared and freaked out.  As I sit and type this, Justin is napping by my side.  I know I should be napping too as I'm about to go through labor in the next week or so and have a newborn on my hands, but I fear going to sleep and him having another seizure when I'm not awake.  So here I sit watching my little guy rest peacefully.  He seems to be just fine, but our doctor did recommend monitoring him very closely for the next week.  I can't even begin to describe everything I felt while the incident occurred last night.  It is not something I would wish on anyone.  Thankfully, our outcome was at least a good one.  Poor Katelynn was so brave even when she was scared out of her mind.  I tried comforting her as best I could last night, but the whole event is still so confusing for her.  We keep trying to tell her today how brave and helpful she was in such a scary event.  It was the cutest thing ever though when the firetruck arrived.  She immediately walked up to the first fireman on scene and said, "We don't have a fire here.  We need an ambulance.  There's no fire!" 

Thank you to everyone that made it this far in my ramblings.  I'm exhausted, overwhelmed, scared, swollen, and very pregnant so I have no idea how much sense I have made along the way in my storytelling, but I know some of you wanted to know the details so there they are!  I guess all there is to do at this point is hope it never happens again.  I am so ready to have this baby, but now that this has all happened, I cannot imagine leaving Justin's side right now and not being able to keep my own eyes on him every second of every day.  It really is true that it is events like this that make you want to squeeze your kids a little tighter and never let go!   Please keep Justin in your thoughts and prayers!  So far he has yet to spike another fever so we may be out of the woods for now thankfully, but it's still so scary to think about having to go through it again.  I can't get the image of him out of my mind.  It was truly a day I hope I never have to repeat....