This past Tuesday was like any other day. Hunter went to Mrs. Cathy's while Carl and I worked. He had a great day and they were preparing for all their Easter festivities for the week. He ate normal, slept normal, acted normal. I picked him up, we came home, played outside, did all our normal things.
He had a runny nose with a post-nasal drip cough so I gave him half the dose of Benadryl our pediatrician said he could have for his allergies. I put him in his crib at 7 and he felt perfectly fine.
Carl got home around 8. He was doing something in the kitchen when he asked, "Is Hunter still awake?" I told him he was probably just stirring in his sleep (because he does that... a lot). Carl went back to our bedroom to change and looked at the monitor. I heard him say, "Something doesn't look right. I'm going in there." I just assumed he wanted to go snuggle Hunter (since he gets home after he is in bed, and he does this occasionally). Then I heard him call for me (using my name... he never uses my "real" name) in a not so calm voice. When I walked back to his room, his limbs were limp. He couldn't move them. He could barely hold his head up and his eyes kept rolling in the back of his head. He had very shallow breaths. I heard Carl say he thinks Hunter had a seizure and to call 911. I didn't know what to say, I hadn't seen anything, so I handed the phone to Carl. To listen to Carl describe what he saw and to see Hunter that way was gut-wrenching.
The paramedics showed up in about 5 minutes from the time we got on the phone. By this time, I had already called Kelly and she was on her way to pick one of us up for the hospital. The other would ride in the ambulance. Both of us wanted to ride, but I knew Carl would be a nervous wreck either waiting on Kelly to get to our house, or him driving to the hospital (not that I wasn't, but I would rather be the nervous wreck than him). The paramedics were awesome and so calming. They took his vitals. He had a fever a little over 102. Now, when I put him to bed he had no fever. So this came on within an hour. They got him and Carl loaded up in the ambulance and away they went.
Kelly picked me up (I waited in the street, and my nice neighbor waited with me). We didn't get there too long after the ambulance. By this time, Hunter was finally coming out of his stupor, and actually acknowledged Kelly from across the room by showing her lovey. We were taken back to a room after getting a dose of Tylenol.
Hunter had had a febrile seizure. One of the biggest causes of seizures in children. No neurological damage was done. He may or may not have another one ever is what the ER told us.
We had a follow up on Friday with his pediatrician. We have a 66% chance of him never having another febrile seizure. He should out grow them by 6 (if he has another one). If he does have another one, it can last up to 5 minutes, but they generally don't last longer than 1. If it gets to 10 we are to call 911 again. We are not being put on any medications (which we wouldn't have wanted anyways) since the side effects are worse than the seizures themselves. No neurologist appointment unless they start to occur more frequently (with or without fevers) or if they last long periods of time.
I'm putting my child in a bubble. End of story.
