The above mentioned took place last Friday (17th). J had started running a fever (99 - 101 temp) earlier in the day and (at the appropriate time) I would give him Tylenol and that would get it back down.
When he went down for his nap, he was running about 98 - 99 temp. By the time he woke up, it was up to 102. Gave him Tylenol again and temp went back down. He was feeling ok so, at about 4:30, we went to have our Christmas pictures made. Grabbed something to eat and headed home.
By 6:30, his temp had shot up to 104. I couldn't give him more Tylenol (and unfortunately, didn't know that I could give him Motrin as well). He had some of his bottle and right after that, his whole back went rigid, left arm was jerking uncontrollably, saliva running from his mouth and his eyes rolled back in his head. Needless to say, I panicked. It's one thing to know what to do if someone goes into a seizure. It's something totally different when it's your own child. I knew I needed to call 911 but, I didn't want to expose R to the chaos of that again. The night of Donovan's accident, she just kept telling G "Someone needs help" without saying (or realizing who). And if I had to take J to the ER, R didn't need to be exposed to that and I couldn't leave her alone. I sent a message to Joyce (church secretary who lives down the road from us to come to the house).
Thankfully, our neighbors across the street were home. They have 4 children and she home school the two oldest (one is 8 and the other is almost R's age). I took R and went to our neighbor's (leaving the front door open of all things). It took about a minute before she came to the door and all I could say was to call 911... NOW!
I put J on their couch and his lips were starting to turn blue but then his little tummy started moving again and I kept rubbing his chest and praying for him to stay with us. The whole time, the mental images of finding Donovan on the floor and barely breathing were running through my head. It was horrible!
They called 911 and a seconds later, I could hear the sirens. Joyce said that she saw the ambulance coming down the street (headed toward her and then turning on our street). J was still in seizure when the EMS got there but just a few seconds later (when Joyce came in) he was coming out of it and shivering.
The EMS checked his vitals and all was normal. They told me that febrile seizure's are actually common among little ones. I had never had this happen with R so this was all new to me. Once the EMS left, the tears came. I cried because of the reality that J could have died (if he hadn't started breathing again on his own) and I cried because I hated being alone in that situation. (K and G were at a Christmas party over in Rockwall so they wouldn't have been able to help at all).
R stayed with our neighbors and Joyce and I took J back home. Called the after-hours nurse of our MD and they said to go ahead and take him to the ER. I told the nurse that I thought J may be also dehydrated (which the ER staff were like "Yea right! Whatever")... Come to show that when they did the blood work, he was dehydrated so... pppppffffftttt to the ER staff. At least I got a "Good call" from the ER MD... Ha! J was running a 103 when we got to the ER (at about 7:00) and it didn't go down until 2:30 AM (when we left the ER)...
I am so blessed to have great neighbors and church family that were there for us when we needed it most. I am also blessed to have so many great friends that called, texted, or messaged on FB while Joyce and I were going through everything with J.
I learned alot that night and know that if J ever starts running a fever (even if it's just 99) that I'm whipping out the Motrin and Tylenol because he can easily have another seizure when that starts.
A little over a week later and J is back (almost) to his old self... :)
More to follow....
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