This last Friday was possibly one of the worst days of my life.
Everything was going OK, until Eithan and I had to go to the ER.
I think I need to start from the beginning...
Thursday Eithan woke up with a slight rash.
He's had many of these before, so I wasn't really stressed about it.
That night he developed a fever.
I tried to treat it, but he has a bad habit of spitting out everything that's medicine-like.
So all day Friday he had a fever.
He was still running around playing like normal.
He went outside a couple of times.
He ran around and fell down like normal.
Then my mom suggested that we should take his temperature and really see where his fever was.
My dad felt his forehead and said 'You need to get him into a cool bath he's near seizure temp'
So my mom and I started taking his temperature and she started a bath as well.
Somewhere during all of this,
I turned Eithan around to face me and noticed that something was really wrong.
His eyes were glazed over.
He was limp and unresponsive.
His lips and around his mouth were turning blue.
I turned to my Dad and said, " Dad, something is wrong."
He took one look at Eithan and pulled him from me and started treating him.
He informed me that Eithan was seizing and that we needed to cool him down immediately.
I ran back to the bathroom to make sure the tub was going,
and then ran back to my Dad to see how he was doing.
Eithan still wasn't responding to anything.
His mouth was clamped shut, and he started vomiting.
Fortunately my father was holding him over the kitchen sink and he vomited in there as my father poured cool water on his head and neck.
It was at this point that I dialed 911.
I talked to the operator and they immediately dispatched an Ambulance.
She stayed on the phone with me while we waited.
My father continued treating Eithan and I started running around the house like a mad woman.
I was grabbing a change of clothes/diapers/wipes and checking on him as I was running by.
(This many sound funny to some of you, but I knew that my Father was doing all that he could, and there was nothing I could do in addition to that... and I did not want to get to the hospital with absolutely nothing for Eithan to change in to. Because you never know what's going to happen at the hospital.)
As I came back after gathering things, I checked in on him and he was coming out of the seizure.
He was confused and crying. Weak and shaky. But still really hot.
It was at this point that the Ambulance arrived.
The Ambulance crew came in and started asking us some questions, checked us out really quickly and then had me walk with Eithan to the Ambulance.
They strapped me into the gurney holding Eithan and off we went to Kadlec.
They tried to take his vitals while we were in the Ambulance, but were unable because they didn't have the right size of equipment for a baby. And all this time the Paramedic is trying to assure me that this happens all the time (about twice a week according to him) and not to worry about it.
We arrived at the hospital, and that's where everything took forever.
Anyone who's been to the ER knows exactly what I mean.
It took forever to get admitted.
It took forever to get some information.
It took forever for someone to come in and finally get some medicine in him.
It took forever for the doctor to come and check on us.
It took forever for the test results to come back.
And it took forever for us to get discharged once we found out that Eithan was OK.
In the end...
they couldn't find anything wrong with him.
The doctor informed us that sometimes when children have fevers that it isn't how high the fever goes, but how quickly it climbs that causes a seizure.
He thought that this was the case with Eithan.
He told us that he definitely has a virus because his White Blood Cell count was low.
(And there isn't anything that can be done for viruses we just have to wait them out.)
And told me the same thing the Paramedic did, not to worry about it because they happen all the time.
{Can I just say 'Ugh!' here..}
It was terrifying.
If any of you my friends are reading this, please google Febrile Seizures.
Learn about the signs, symptoms and treatment.
Learn about all of this ahead of time,
because not knowing what to do in the moment, is not where you want to be.
Eithan's Identification Bracelet
They wrapped it around his ankle
{always a little too tight in my opinion}
This is right after he had his blood drawn.
They wrapped his arm with some gauze and he couldn't decide if he was more unhappy about the actual poke and blood or about the gauze wrapped around his arm.
It's kinda hard to see but that little red mark is where they drew his blood.
I'm pretty sure this is the first time he's had his blood drawn with a butterfly needle.
The phlebotomist did a great job and got it on the first try.
These pictures show you how much better he felt and
how ready he was to go home after being at the ER for hours.
One shoe on.
What? Isn't it time to go home?
We're all OK now. I'm not panicking anymore.
Although writing about this is bringing back those emotions.
Eithan is still ill, and we're going to take him to his Pediatrician soon if this rash doesn't go away.
All of this to say...
Whew.
I never want to do that again!
