This story has a wonderfully happy ending so know that now but please go give your babies an extra tight hug and thank Jesus for the breaths that they are breathing! :)
It has taken me 2 weeks (exactly) to be at a point to where I feel I can blog about this without crying my mascara right off of my face..it's still fresh, it's still raw and it still hurts my heart as a mother.
Jared's parents came in town a few weeks ago, on the last full day that they were here we decided to take the kids some place fun, Incredible Pizza was their pick, the kids love it there.
We arrived, feasted on pizza and noticed that little Oliver's hands were ice cold and that he had the shivers. I gave Oliver my cardigan to warm up with, didn't work, he just got tired of wearing a floppy over-sized sweater while playing games.
Half way through playing games I noticed that Oliver's hands were even colder and that his head felt warm, I didn't have a thermometer with me so I couldn't check his temp so I did the mom-check .. kissy lips on his forehead .. "sheww, you're burning up!".
Shortly after that I decided that it was time to go (sooner than we had planned) due to Oliver not feeling well. I told everyone that we should cash in our tickets and head home. It was 6:30pm (remember this time for later).
Just as I said we should cash in our tickets I noticed Oliver's eyes glance toward the ticket counter, up and to the right of where I was standing while holding him on my hip, after a few seconds I noticed that he didn't look back at me. I called his name "Oliver .." nothing. not a word. I said (probably more like yelled) "Oliver, are you okay? .. Oliver? .. OLIVER?? OLIVER!!!!"
Jared was standing beside me while I was holding Oliver in my arms, I looked at Jared, tears filling my eyes, I handed my baby over to him, hoping that Jared would be able to "fix" him. Jared told me to call 911, before I thought to grab Jared's phone to call I shouted to an employee who was standing just beside me "CALL 911 .. Something's happening to my son??" with question because I was 100% unsure what was happening .. I looked at Oliver's face, his eyes locked to the upper right hand side, no emotion on his pale face, his body stiff but limp, totally helpless. I ran as fast as I could from the back of the place to the front to get a napkin and some ice (for his forehead), by the time I made it out of the restroom and filled up a cup with ice Jared had taken Oliver, who was still unresponsive, stiff and eyes locked, outside.
I ran outside where Jared had Oliver.
(this part makes me queasy so just skip past it if you have a weak stomach)
Oliver was still unresponsive with eyes locked, I looked down at the sidewalk where Jared was holding Oliver upright (Oliver was "sitting" on Jared's knee) and there was a pile of vomit. I said "Did Oliver throw up?!" and when I looked at his face he had vomit coming out of his nose, not his mouth but out of his nose, a few seconds (which felt like hours) later Oliver started to throw up from his mouth except it wasn't a typical throw up like bending over throwing up with the flu, this was my baby boy, stiff, standing up assisted by Jared, not making any effort to throw up what was inside of him, it was just coming out of his nose and his mouth, no action on Oliver's part, he stood there in a daze, not knowing what was happening or even responding to anything, vomit basically pouring out of his mouth like a faucet .. SO SCARY! I honestly thought that Oliver was going to die.
(if you skipped the icky part you can pick up right here)
A very nice man who we think is named P.J. stood beside us, reassured us that what was happening was a seizure and dialed 911 while Jared and I knelt on the ground with tears filling our eyes and rolling down our cheeks. P.J. talked us through what we should and shouldn't do while he was talking with a dispatch operator on the phone. Within 2 or 3 minutes the EMT's arrived, along with the fire department. It was right around then that I saw Oliver's eyes glance to the left and move back to the right.
Oliver slowly began to come out of his seizure (it lasted 5 minutes or so but it honestly felt like hours), I carried him (maybe it was Jared, I don't quite remember, it was all a rush) to the ambulance and he sat on my lap on the stretcher inside. The EMT's checked Oliver's blood, temp and whatever else they needed to check while Oliver lay on my lap crying tears that were filled with hurt and fear. Oliver's temperature was 99.something, I don't quite remember, I just remember that it wasn't very high at all. They drove us to the nearest children's hospital, Jared followed behind in his parent's car while his parent's drove our other two children back to our house and tucked them safely in their beds for the night. Oliver was on oxygen during the ride to the hospital.
We got to the hospital, they wheeled Oliver and I into one of the pediatric ER rooms and we waited for a nurse to come in. When the nurse arrived she took Oliver's temperature and it read 103.6, he went from 99 to 103 in 10-15 minutes after his seizure, common post seizure reaction (from what I've been told and researched).
We sat in the waiting room, scared, afraid, praying, crying, trying to be strong. My mind was racing. Oliver was miserable, he was crying out of pain, it was so sad. At this point we still hadn't seen a dr and hadn't been told what it was that had just happened.
Another nurse came in, gave Oliver some ibuprofen for his temperature and walked out. It wasn't even 5 minutes later and the medicine kicked in. Oliver was insane. He was bouncing off of the walls. A few minutes after his medicine kicked in the Dr. came in the room and said "I don't see anything wrong with this kid!" I thought to myself, 'of course you don't, the nurses already doped him up' (if you know me, you know I'm a hippie about medicines and I prefer to let the body function and fight off fevers by itself although my kids have never had a fever higher than 100.whatever).
While the Dr was in the room "diagnosing" Oliver, Oliver started to repeat what the Dr. was saying verbatim except Oliver was using crazy voices like Donald Duck, cat meows, deep low voices, he was acting crazy! At one point Oliver was just saying "Tu-Ti Tu-Ti Tu-Ti" over and over again to the tune of an ambulance siren .. Jared and I were still in tears but these tears were tears of joy, our spunky little Oliver was right back to himself again except a lot more spunky than before.
After talking with a nurse it turns out that the medicine they gave him had red dye in it .. something I avoid if/when I do give my children medicine. I noticed when Oliver was teething as an infant that whatever the Dr. prescribed for him made him even more cranky. After researching it I decided to switch to dye free medicine and had totally forgotten about it because all I buy now is dye free, for 3 years I've been buying the same brand, the same everything, I totally forgot about the red dye. Until the medicine wore off and his fever came back little Oliver was hilarious (not that he isn't on a normal day).
The Dr. ended up explaining to us that what happened to Oliver is called a Febrile Seizure. Click on the text if you'd like a bit more info on it.
Basically what happened is that Oliver's temperature became to hot too quickly for his body to handle, he went from normal temp of 98 to a fever temp of 99 too fast for his body to adjust properly and since the central nervous system isn't fully developed until most children reach the age of 5 or 6 Oliver's body handled the temperature rise by seizing. Once he has had one febrile seizure he is more likely to have another one until his CNS is fully developed so now I carry a thermometer and a bottle of fever reducer in my purse with me, 24/7 and we have ibuprofen suppositories that we can use if/when he starts to seize again to help bring down the body temperature faster since he can't have any liquids while he is seizing. The faster we are able to bring down his temp, possibly the less time he will spend seizing.
These types of seizures do not cause brain damage or any type of permanent damage at all but what could cause brain damage as a result from the seizure is falling to the ground and Oliver hitting his head from seizing when no one is around .. You better believe we followed him around like a hawk for days until his body temperature regulated. I am SO thankful for how everything worked out. Even though it was the scariest thing that I have experienced as a mother (honestly thinking and feeling like my son was going to die).
That night as I was attempting to sort through emotions I found myself so thankful that everything played out the way that it did, down to every last detail of the day.
Thankful that I was holding him, he didn't fall, he didn't hit his head, he was in my arms, the safest place he could have been at that time.
Thankful that we were not at home, had we been at home and it was 6:30 (the time when he seized) he would have been in one of two places.
1. Oliver would have been in the bath tub (where we often times fill it up and let him play with his cars while we are folding laundry or doing some other sort of picking up) .. had he been in the tub and seized .. well .. we probably wouldn't have been there to .. I can't even finish because it shreds my heart just thinking about it. He didn't make a sound when he seized, we wouldn't have heard a thing.
2. Oliver would have been in bed, during the school year bed time is 6:30 for all of the kids but when visitors are in town we sometimes let them stay up later. Had Oliver been in bed and seized he could have choked on his tongue or on his vomit and .. same thing .. breaks my heart.
I am so thankful we were where we were. I am so thankful for P.J. standing there beside us and talking us through what the operator was saying. I am so thankful that Jared's parents were in town so that they could take our other children home while Jared came to the hospital with us to be my rock. I am so thankful that I have a strong, calm, tender husband who can take over when I go crazy mom spastic in situations like this. Most of all I am so thankful that we trust God with every single part of our lives, trusting in God and looking at all of the small things that lined up to make it as good as it could have been for us is amazing.
Side note: P.J. .. you will never read this and I know we will never cross paths again but I just want you to know how thankful I am for you, how thankful my husband is for you and how much of a blessing you were to our family that Friday night.
To everyone other than P.J., if you see a mother crying with a sick child, please stop and offer help, when you see an ambulance driving down the road, stop and say a prayer for whoever is inside of it.
We are now 2 weeks (exactly) post seizure, Oliver has only had the one seizure. I don't feel fully educated on Febrile Seizures but I do feel better about it today than I did two weeks ago.
Tonight we celebrate Oliver's half birthday, he is officially 3 1/2 today. I can smell his half birthday cake cooling in the kitchen and I'm about ready to cut it, ice it and hide it so he wont' see it until after dinner. :)
After 2 weeks of feeling like my emotions were exposed for all the world to see, I am beginning to feel like "me" again. The subject is still tender to my heart. All of my babies are.
Give your babies hugs and kisses, no matter how old they are. :)
Thank Jesus for the breaths that they breathe..I know I do, more now than ever before.
my friend Jerrica owns her own photography business and took these photos for us, these photos were taken the day after Oliver's seizure when we were still extremely unsure of what was next for him and my emotions felt raw and frazzled.
I remember discussing with Jared if we were or weren't going to go have these pictures taken and I looked at him with tears in my eyes and said "What if something happens to him, something bad .. I want to remember him, I want to remember these pictures for all of my life."
These pictures all look so adorable and so sweet, my kids were anything but during the session but Jerrica managed to capture some great images that will forever be a breath of fresh air in the middle of what currently holds first place as the scariest part of my life.
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