Three Times the Fun: Seizures are Scary

I will start this post with letting you know EVERYONE IS OK.

Maybe Gavin will go into EMT or rescue work

On Saturday, the last day of our Eid break, Gavin decided to scare the living crap out of us. He had been having an up and down (but pretty high) fever since Friday and we were just treating him with Tylenol/Motrin for the fever. He also had some lower GI stuff (let's just say LOTS of dirty diapers. LOTS.) but when his fever was down he was playign and happy. When it was up he was fussy and felt crummy.

They had been woken up from their afternoon nap about 3:40PM and he was due for his next dose at 4:30PM. Curt was changing Aidan , Brady was crawling around and I was holding Gavin. I had just said, "Man, this kid feels like he is burning up! I need to take his temp" When suddenly he sort of threw his body back (like he does when he is fussy) but he didn't come back up to my shoulder. I looked at him and in a voice that now seems like it came from someone else said "He's having a seizure." Curt looks at me and says "What?!"and as I put him on the floor and proceed to cry and say, "He's having a seizure! Oh my God!". Then it was chaos. Aidan and Brady were both crawling around and crying, but not coming over to us on the carpet. Curt ran to get our chart for tracking meds doses, then the baby book so I could look up about febrile seizures (since I had read about it and was CERTAIN it would never happen to us, i had skimmed this section) and what the F*%@ we were supposed to do. I don't know if you have ever tried to look something up while you are 1)crying 2) freaking and 3) trying to comfort your baby who is STILL SEIZING - it's not productive. at all. It ended up lasting about 2 or 3 minutes and seemed like a lifetime.

Curt called our life safer Jen S. and asked her to come and stay with the other two since we were going to need to go to the hospital. Curt then picked Gavin up as I went to call the ambulance. When Gavin stopped seizing he went completely limp. Curt says this was scarier than the seizure - i have to beleive him since he was holding Gavin. It looked really scary from where i was. We then had Gavin on the couch in his diaper with cold wet towels on him, a bag of frozen cauliflower (he may never eat that again) on the towels and me kissing his head and tryign to calm him and give him his tylenol dose early as he cried and curt got stuff togther for what we would need for the hospital.

Basically, he had a febrile seizure which can happen as a temp rises VERY quickly. By the time he had vitals at the hospital 30 min after his tylenol dose his temp was 40.6 C (105F). i can't even tell you how wired curt and I were. Luckily Jen and her husband are AMAZING - he called other friends of ours to help her out while we were gone and they came over right away (stanfield's and aunt coco) for moral and physical support. By the time I came home to get stuff for my overnight stay with Gavin, the boys were ready for bed and GLAD to see mom with all of the commotion. They did NOT want me to leave and fought going to bed. They knew something was wrong.

Gavin and I stayed overnight at the hospital and he was checked pretty much around the clock to control his fever and try to ensure he had no more seizures (which he didn't). we now know that his brothers could be prone to this and he is most definitely prone to this until he is about 6 years old, so if we sound paranoid about any fevers in our house, you know why. If I never relive that afternoon, it will be too soon.

Gavin was released the next day and while he still had a fever it was lower and we have some strategies now with meds to treat it more effectively. On tuesday, his fever broke and he woke up with a nice RASH all over his torso and face. Can you guess this common childhood disease? That's right folks, Roseola! Exactly what Aidan had this summer, only with more drama. Had we just had the 4 days of fever i think we would have recognized it as roseola right away, but since saturday and sunday felt like ETERNITIES, i said "kids don't "just get rashes" after fevers like this" and took him in. The Dr. was great for both examining Gavin and reassuring me (and yes, I did cry a little in her office going through our recent history).

It wasn't until Monday night Curt and I were both able to put the boys down and unwind a bit - and have ourselves a good cry together. We were both OBVIOUSLY scared. And so thankful that he was going to be fine. It just reminds you of the paper thin edge we live on between life being excellent and then feeling like you are careening out of control. We have definitely been counting our blessings - the small, medium and large ones. :)